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| LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. I 



No. 



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lUNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



V 



AN EXPOSITION 



CHURCH OF CHRIST 



its doctrine: 



FORMING 



A SUPPLEMENT 



f THE END OF CONTROVERSY, CONTROVERTED." 

BY 

JOHN J. WHITE. 




PHILADELPHIA: 
LIPPINCOTT, GRAMBO, & CO. 

1855. 






Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1855, by 

JOHN J. WHITE, 

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the 

Eastern District of Pennsylvania. 



(«) 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Introduction ix 

Chap. I. Theory of the Human Kace 17 

II. Of Man in the Fall 28 

III. Institution of the Law 42 

IV. The end of the Law 53 

V. Of the Gospel Dispensation. . 65 

VI. Of the Church 78 

VII. Of the Church (continued) 102 

VIII. Of the Ministry 121 

IX. Abrogation of the Law 143 

X. Relics of the Law 161 

XL Relics of the Law (continued) 

Of Baptism 172 

Of Confirmation 184 

(vii) 



Vlll PKEFACE. i 

Chap. XII. Kelics of the Law (concluded} 

Of the Lord's Supper . . . 187 

Of Penance , . , . 208 

Of Extreme Unction . . , 208 

Of Holy Orders 208 

Of Matrimony 208 

XIII. Of Faith 209 

XIV. Conclusion 228 



INTRODUCTION 



The salvation of the immortal soul is an object 
infinitely paramount to every other considera- 
tion. Whatever, therefore, professes to point 
out the means through which we may attain that 
great aim and end of our existence, must possess 
interest for all who are sufficiently awakened to 
the reality of this truth. I class myself in the 
number of honest inquirers Zion-ward; and 
cannot view with indifference either the theories 
or the efforts of mv fellow-men, to mark out for 
me the narrow way to life everlasting. I am 
bound, at the peril of all I value, to judge the 
doctrine which calls me from the path of my 
earthly pilgrimage to another and divergent 
course. If that I tread be not demonstrably the 

(is) 



X INTRODUCTION. 

sure and the only road to peace — if I cannot, at 
least to my own conscience, give a satisfactory 
reason for the hope that is in me — if a doubt or 
a shadow lie upon my faith — it behooves me to 
try well its foundation, and rest not until I shall 
have reached the rock whereon my building 
may abide the storm and the flood. The issue, 
with me, is immeasurably beyond all that the 
natural understanding can conceive of life or 
death. 

It is with feelings of this character that I have 
again read a work entitled " The End of Eeli- 
gious Controversy," in order to examine ano- 
ther, recently issued to refute it, called " The 
End of Controversy Controverted." The former 
was written in the early part of the present cen- 
tury, by John Milner, a Doctor of Divinity in 
the Eoman Catholic Church, and purports to be 
a friendly correspondence with a Society, of a 
few individuals, to prove the exclusive claim of 
his co-religionists to be the church of Christ. 
The latter also takes an epistolary form, in a 
series of letters addressed to the Eoman Catholic 
Archbishop of Baltimore, by John II. Hopkins, 



INTRODUCTION. XI 

Doctor of Divinity and Laws, and Bishop in the 
Protestant Episcopal Church. Although pro- 
fessing to be a refutation of the former, it is so 
but to a limited extent. The claims of both rest 
upon the same basis of an outward hierarchy, 
ordained by, and descended, through certain out- 
ward forms and rules, from Jesus Christ. The 
dispute is in reality much more political than 
essential. Both the combatants are acrimonious 
and unsparing towards their rival communities, 
yet they mutually recognize the lineaments of a 
common parentage and close relationship. 

While I accord my meed of praise for the 
more liberal and enlarged Christian charity of 
the latter champion, I cannot withhold, even 
from the fanatic intolerance of the former, the 
respect which is due to apparently legitimate 
deductions from conceded premises. I may 
freely confess that, great as is the ability and 
research displayed by the Protestant writer, and 
overwhelming the testimony he brings to prove 
the licentiousness and corruption of that insti- 
tution, which, however adulterous, he yet con- 
cedes to be the spouse of Christ in common with 



Xll INTRODUCTION. 

his own, I should hardly be won, were I a mem- 
ber, by his learning or his logic, to abandon it ; 
for though the despotic and degraded, it is yet 
the elder claimant to the throne. These consi- 
derations, however, I leave to their respective 
followers and especial opponents, as little affect- 
ing the position I shall undertake to defend in 
the following pages. I must reject equally the 
claim of the Roman Catholic to bow me at his 
shrine, or destroy me by his anathema, and the 
more modest invitation of the Episcopal digni- 
tary, to consider his organization the true church 
and Bride of Christ. The portraits they have 
drawn are sufficiently true and repulsive, to 
satisfy an impartial inquirer that great talents 
and learning have been enlisted on both sides, 
rather in the defence of error than the search 
after truth. Without, therefore, entering into 
an extensive examination of their systems of 
religion, I propose, in a plain and direct essay, 
to furnish my fellow-pilgrims with a better 
guide to attain that assurance which shall effec- 
tually end religious controversy. 

I have called this a Supplement to the works 



INTRODUCTION. Xlll 

in question. It is intended to supply what is 
wanting in both, and what both profess to 
demonstrate; that "secure, never-failing, and 
universal rule or method adapted to the abilities 
and circumstances of all, which our Divine Master, 
Christ, in establishing a religion here on earth, left, 
by which those persons who sincerely seek for it 
may certainly find it." In undertaking to show 
this rule, I give my full assent to the funda- 
mental premises laid down in both. This will 
more fully appear in the progress of my expo- 
sition. All that is necessary now, is to deter- 
mine and agree upon the common and accessible 
standard, to try what is disputed, and to prove 
what may be advanced. For this purpose they 
have used, and I shall use, the Scriptures of the 
Old and New Testament. By universal consent, 
these sacred records have been appealed to as 
the test of Christian doctrine ; and, as common 
ground, however wrested and abused in their 
application, they must continue through Time 
the highest outward authority. 

Both my predecessors have started with their 
assumed systems of what is called Faith, as con- 
2 



XIV INTRODUCTION, 

ceded or established. Neither of them seems to 
have looked beyond the narrow scope of a pro- 
selyting missionary for a particular sect of pro- 
fessors. They stand, alike, the harnessed and 
obedient servants of organized intellectual des- 
potisms, which forbid all trains of thought other 
than in the prescribed channels of educational 
discipline ; and, as a consequence, their contest 
is for little else than political supremacy, on the 
very contracted question of apostolic episcopal 
descent. I should but partially explain my views 
on the subjects treated by them, in directing 
inquiry merely to the opinions of men eminent 
for sanctity and learning. It is necessary, in 
order to elucidate the position and the meaning 
of those who stand as lights and authorities, to 
take a much more comprehensive survey than 
either the Eoman Catholic or the Protestant 
Episcopal writer has attempted. My purpose is, 
therefore, to trace, in as condensed a manner as 
the importance of the subject will permit, the 
position in which I find myself as a descendant 
of my first progenitor, in order to give more 
clearly a reason of the hope that is in me of a 



INTRODUCTION. XV 

resurrection from the dead, through faith which 
is in Christ Jesus. I expect, in this way, to 
reach the issues involved, and furnish the honest 
inquirer with the means of solving that great 
problem or question presented, viz. : What is 
the certain and the only rule or method for the 
salvation of his never-dying soul ? 



AN EXPOSITION, 

ETC. 
CHAPTER I. 

THEORY OF THE HUMAN RACE. 

The only authentic record of the creation of 
man, is contained in the inspired account of 
Moses. No other exists which deserves even to 
be ranked as a reasonable tradition or specula- 
tion. I shall confine my remarks, therefore, to 
the text as we receive it in the book of Genesis, 
and endeavor to elucidate that history by the 
lights and analogies at my disposal. 

The science of Geology has successfully im- 
pugned the literal construction formerly placed 
on the statement therein made, that the earth 
was created in six days. Its incontestible proof 
that these days were epochs or stages, separated 
from each other by vast intervals, can only shake 
2 * (17) 



18 THEORY OF THE HUMAN RACE. 

the faith of the superficial reader. I shall not 
pause to consider in the outset, the highly figu- 
rative style of ancient Scripture history, nor 
dwell on the absolute necessity for large allow- 
ances on the misty ground between allegory and 
fact, in reading Genesis and Job. If the lite- 
ralist, like his kindred who imposed the penance 
of falsehood on Galileo, will abide in the outer 
court of bigotry and prejudice, I fear we shall 
not travel far in a harmonious search after truth. 
It is the spirit— the true intent and meaning of 
the writer — which should be the goal; and 
surely, of all compositions, these most ancient 
chronicles require the largest latitude of inter- 
pretation. 

In another department of science — that of 
Ethnology — a theory has latterly sprung up, 
w T hich, if it shall ever become as firmly esta- 
blished, will constitute a far more formidable 
barrier in my path. I allude to the doctrine of 
a diverse origin for the various races of men. It 
is, nevertheless, as yet but a mere theory — 
plausible, it is true, but wholly unsusceptible of 
proof— and from its nature destined to remain 



THEORY OF THE HUMAN RACE. 19 

such, however it may enlist the learned in its 
support. But even here, the array of authority 
is, in my estimation, very much against it. I 
dismiss it, therefore, as presenting no obstacle 
to the reception of the Mosaic account of our 
parentage — an account which seems to me 
almost self-evident, as the irresistible corollary 
of an inquirer, with even no better light or guide 
than his unassisted reason. 

According to this, God created a single pair 
of progenitors for the whole human race. In 
them He manifestly created their posterity ; for 
by the act of creation, properly so called, and 
alone applicable to Him, all the future of the 
race must necessarily have been involved. There 
can be no past nor future, however contradictory 
such an assertion may sound, with Deity him- 
self, which is substantially to say that He is 
unchangeable. Nothing imperfect or susceptible 
of improvement was ever formed by Him. 
Hence man, the crown of his works, made after 
his own image, came from the hand of his 
Maker, absolutely perfect in himself and all his 
posterity. In scientific language, we use the 



20 THEORY OF THE HUMAN RACE. 

term law to signify that uniform series of suc- 
cessive existences by which the condition of the 
first becomes impressed on all that follows. We 
say that such is the law of the species ; as the 
animal was originally, so he is now, modified 
and changed only by the circumstances through 
which he has passed. The law that regulated 
the first link in his series of ancestors, is the 
same that governed his own birth, although the 
descendant at this day, may have become a very 
dissimilar being. 

I therefore lay it down as an incontrovertible 
proposition, that in the beginning, all was 
formed perfect, fixed, and unchangeable forever. 
Though, as the upholder of the universe, not 
even a sparrow falls to the ground without His 
notice, yet nothing ever has or ever will require 
modification or change as a consequence of 
God's creation. 

In considering the state of Adam and Eve, we 
must then regard them as absolutely perfect. 
First, in the outward material body or habitation, 
of which the blood constitutes the life and sen- 
tinel — coursing through every part, nourishing 



THEORY OP THE HUMAN RACE. 21 

every fibre, removing every effete and excrescent 
particle, and renewing, in its appointed season, 
tlie fabric, as disease, injur} 7 , or decay may re- 
quire, in part and in whole. Next, its immediate 
and mysterious inhabitant, that wonderful com- 
pound of perceptions and faculties called the 
mind or intellect — intangible to sense, yet even 
more demonstrable than the matter it inhabits 
and controls — of which reason is the Jife and 
regulator. Lastly, the still mare inappreciable, 
though the true immortal man, known as the 
soul or spirit, and of which God himself w r as the 
life, light, and Lord Supreme. 

The single peculiarity in the creation of the 
human race, was this — that God formed man 
"after his own image" — "in his own likeness;" 
that is to say, being thus, as a three-fold being, 
made perfect, and ordained to live forever, he 
was left free and unbiassed in his will. His 
Creator so framed and designed him, that the 
choice between good and evil was left entirely 
to himself. Nothing less than the freedom of 
will could have made him a probationer and a 
responsible being — • liable, for its abuse, to con- 



22 THEOKY OF THE HUMAN RACE. 

demnatiou ; and capable of meriting, for its use, 
the reward of virtue. 

It seems to me a self-evident proposition that, 
in this particular, the Most High relinquished 
his prerogative of foreknowledge. To suppose 
him the Creator, with perfect prescience of what 
followed in the history of his creature, is to 
make him the Author of all his woes — to believe 
him the very reverse of good. Nay, it uproots 
the foundation of moral accountability — of right 
and wrong — of equity and justice. I have no 
ground to stand on in my estimate of God and 
his attributes, if I do not believe myself perfectly 
free to will as I please. However sophistry may, 
in proving me the slave of circumstances, en- 
deavor to demonstrate that I am but an auto- 
maton of fate, I feel conscious of a power that 
more than answers all which reason can suggest 
or receive. But I deny the doctrine as both 
irrational, and without foundation in the Scrip- 
tures of Truth — which, I trust, will be shown 
hereafter. 

The narrative of the inspired writer states 
this substantially in the words, "The Lord God 



THEORY OF THE HUMAN RACE. 23 

formed man of the dust of the ground, and 
breathed into his nostrils the breath of life ; and 
man became a living soul." * And again : " The 
Lord God took the man, and put him into the 
garden of Eden to dress it, and to keep it. And 
the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of 
every tree of the garden thou mayst freely eat : 
But of the tree of the knowledge of good and 
evil, thou shalt not eat of it ; for in the day that 
thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die."f 

In the bold metaphors of oriental imagery, 
and the highly poetic character of the subject, 
the clime, and the genius of the author, spiritual 
conditions and facts are represented by, and 
blended with, outward realities. The garden of 
Paradise is highly typical of what, by a far 
bolder metaphor, we call the heart; the trees 
are still of the same compound — susceptible of 
a literal, though intended for a spiritual signifi- 
cation ; but when we reach the fruit, it becomes 
impossible to doubt the import of the narration. 
The knowledge of good and evil never had any 

* Gen. ii. 7. t Gen. ii. 15 to 17. 



24 THEORY OF THE HUMAN RACE. 

connection with a tree, other than we find 
throughout the Holy Scriptures — in every part 
of which moral truths and spiritual conditions 
are represented by familiar outward objects. 

I ask, then, what other conclusion can be 
drawn from the inspired history — from its com- 
mentators in every age — from the attributes of 
Deity — and from the knowledge we possess 
individually of ourselves and our ancestors, than 
that Adam, a single man, was created such as I 
have described, the one progenitor of the human 
race; that coeval with, and from him, as his 
complement, a single female, and in them all 
their posterity — stamped irrevocably in the same 
Divine image throughout all generations forever. 

Let us contemplate the sphere, and the condi- 
tion of such a being. The creation was abso- 
lutely perfect. Infinite Wisdom ordained and 
appointed the position and course of every indi- 
vidual in the series. The language to the pro- 
phet Jeremiah, when the word of the Lord came 
unto him, illustrates this : " Before I formed 
thee in the belly, I knew thee; and before 
thou earnest forth out of the womb I sanctified 



THEORY OF THE HUMAN RACE. 25 

thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the 
nations."* This ordination and appointment 
could be carried out only by the co-operation of 
the creature, thus free to choose the path of 
duty or rebellion. The prophet might have 
resisted, and so changed the ordination of the 
Most High. Adam did rebel, and overturned 
the whole plan marked out and prescribed for 
himself and his posterity. 

In the position, however, wherein he was 
created, God would have been the Author of 
every act, the prompter of every movement. 
Liberty was given him to eat freely of every tree 
in the garden, except that of the knowledge of 
good and evil. The serpent truly told Eve they 
should be as gods by rebellion, and the result 
abundantly proved its reality. While the will 
of the creature was always in subjection to the 
will of the Creator, one will, and that the will 
of Omniscience, Omnipresence, Omnipotence, 
and absolute Goodness, reigned supreme. When 
two wills were introduced by the transgression 

* Jer. i. 5. 



26 THEORY OF THE HUMAN RACE. 

of that simple fundamental law of obedience, 
then man became a god to himself — first, the 
subtle casuist to bolster up and justify his crime ; 
next, its terrible avenger in his own blood. 

Does any one suppose it a fanciful theory, 
that Adam and all his descendants could easily 
have maintained the state of original peace and 
bliss ? That under the Divine government, pain 
and sorrow would have been unknown, even in 
this confessedly probationary state ? To me it 
appears the most astonishing event in real or 
fictitious chronicle, that he should have fallen 
from such a position. My reason is founded on 
the comparison between the path of a just man 
now, and then. In the present state of society, 
nearly all that influences us from without is for 
evil; then, all from without and from within 
was for good. 

"When we draw our conclusions from a con- 
trast between man under different circumstances, 
and mark the enjoyment of communities emi- 
nent for virtue and religion — the miseries of states 
desolated by war, oppression, and crime — when 
we see how outward health, peace, and prospe- 



THEORY OF THE HUMAN RACE. 27 

rity, follow in the wake of humility and self- 
denial, even under the accumulated infirmities 
entailed on our physical, mental, and moral con- 
dition by untold centuries of ancestral folly and 
crime — can we doubt that, in his original purity 
and perfection, want, disease, and suffering 
would have been unknown ? that the probation- 
ary period of sojourn here would have passed 
on to its close amid the highest enjoyments, 
because limited only by Infinite Wisdom to the 
domain of Virtue ? Would not man have 
dropped this tenement of clay when that proba- 
tion and its easy triumph were accomplished, 
without a sorrow or a pang ? I consider such 
an inference the unavoidable result of even a 
comparison like that I have last instituted — how 
much more so, when the records of inspiration 
show him to be ever the object of an omnipotent 
Creator's unceasing care. 



28 OF MAN IN THE FALL. 



CHAPTER II. 

OF MAN IN THE FALL. 

In the preceding chapter, I have endeavored 
to show the condition in which man was origi- 
nally created. The theory appears to me not 
only scriptural, but the only possible hypothesis 
that can be framed, in accordance with what we 
know of his subsequent history and present 
state. On no other can the sacred narrative of 
events, most certainly the result of his lapse, 
and the means appointed for his redemption and 
final restoration, be satisfactorily explained. I 
have chosen to dwell but briefly on the subject, 
not that it is not of the greatest importance as 
the groundwork of all I have to advance, but 
because every stage of my subsequent inquiry 
will add evidence to strengthen and corrobo- 
rate it. 

The command to Adam was positive — "Of 



OF MAN IN THE FALL. 29 

the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou 
shalt not eat, for in the day that thou eatest 
thereof, thou shalt surely die." In other words, 
death is the certain penalty of the exercise of 
thy will in opposition to mine. What death was 
this ? Not the cessation of animal existence, for 
no such consequence followed. To suppose that 
obedience would have insured immortality to 
the flesh, is to involve our reason in a tissue of 
absurdities, too gross for even the credulity of a 
bigot or a fool. The body of Adam (and this 
includes the original pair, for " male and female 
created he them") was the same before and after 
his transgression, and, like that of his descend- 
ants, material; subject while living to physiolo- 
gical laws, and when dead to chemical change. 
It must have been, as our own, renewed conti- 
nually by the assimilation of matter, and thus 
wholly transmuted through short and successive 
periods of his outward life. Experiments prove, 
beyond all doubt, that no atom of the frame I 
now possess, was mine a dozen years ago. Do 
I therefore question my identity, or that, if living 
a dozen years hence, my tabernacle of flesh will 
3* 



30 OF MAN IN THE FALL. 

be different from the one I now inhabit ? The 
whole history of organized matter is that of an 
incessant and infinite variety of change. No 
property is so disputable as its ownership — no 
tenure so slight and so transient as its posses- 
sion. He, therefore, who regards it, under any 
circumstances, or in any form, as worth any- 
thing more than the temporary use its Creator 
has assigned it, is a fit subject for the tyrannous 
yoke of superstition and spiritual bondage. 

The death involved in this transgression was 
spiritual. The soul — the true, real, and immor- 
tal man — lost its life, the presence and imme- 
diate direction of God Almighty. The moment 
his free-will was exercised in opposition to the 
will of his Maker, that moment he renounced 
allegiance, and became a god to himself. The 
spirit, thus far, through Divine guidance, the 
supreme governor of his lower nature, was now 
subjected to that serpentine and seductive coun- 
sellor, the unassisted reason of man. The efful- 
gence of light, which hitherto had revealed his 
path, became darkness; and henceforward he 
must grope in doubt and error, the prey of his 



OF MAN IN THE FALL. 31 

follies, delusions, and crimes. He descended to 
the level of the beasts that perish, but with this 
awful distinction — of an immortal nature fallen 
from its high estate, and armed with infinitely 
superior powers, perverted now to evil and his 
own everlasting torment. 

Adam (including, as I have said, the first 
pair), by his rebellion, was undoubtedly a sinner 
in the true sense of the term. There is no other 
instance in which we dare apply the epithet in 
its strongest signification, because we cannot 
know the actual relationship between the indivi- 
dual and his Eedeemer. The apostle Paul called 
himself the chief of sinners, for he felt the depth of 
his wretchedness in that body of death, when con- 
trasted with the abundant grace he had received. 
But neither he nor any other man ever knew the 
measure of God's spirit which is meted to a bro- 
ther in bondage. Without that knowledge, he 
who pronounces his fellow a sinner assumes the 
prerogative of God. We know, however, that 
Adam had, before his transgression, the spirit 
of God in the fullness, and without measure; 
and, therefore, that he committed the sin which 



82 OP MAN IN THE FALL. % 

never was, and never can be forgiven. The 
penalty is now, as it was then, inevitable death. 
The whole tenor of the Sacred Writings proves 
this position. Yet, notwithstanding, in the in- 
finite goodness of his Creator, the means of re- 
demption and restoration were as freely offered 
to him as to any of his posterity. 

The word sin is used in two widely different 
senses throughout the Scriptures. In the one it 
means, as above, the guilt of transgression in- 
curred by the wilful offender. In the other, the 
consequences of the offence upon unoffending 
parties. It is in the latter sense that all his pos- 
terity sinned in Adam. All are born into the 
world innocent, it is true, of actual guilt ; but 
affected by the fall of our first parents in this, 
that the natural, or merely animal part, has 
dominion over us. That divine life breathed by 
the Creator into his nostrils, whereby he became 
a living soul, is now lost ; and man is wholly 
unfitted for the path of righteousness and self- 
denial. His tendencies are evil ; and, to know 
everlasting rest and peace, he must be saved or 



OF MAN IN THE FALL. 33 

redeemed from the state in which he enters 
existence. 

This second sense of the term sin is implied, 
throughout the Scriptures, where physical or 
moral deformity or disease is represented as 
entailed on one innocent of the original offence. 
The Jews were accustomed to regard it as an 
equivalent to this state of body and mind. 
Hence they inquired, in the case of the man 
blind from his birth — " Master, who did sin, this 
man, or his parents, that he was born blind?"* 
And that Jesus attached to it the same meaning, 
is shown when, forgiving the sins of the man 
sick of the palsy, the scribes charged him with 
blasphemy. "For," said he, "whether is easier, 
to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, 
Arise, and walk ? But that ye may know that 
the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive 
sins (then saith he to the sick of the palsy), 
Arise, take up thy bed and go into thine house, "f 
Here, as in every other instance on record, the 
sins forgiven by outward means, were diseases 

* John ix. 2. t Matt. ix. 5, 6. 



34 OF MAN IN THE FALL. 

or infirmities cured.* They were lively types 
of that forgiveness of sin effected by His spiritual 
appearance, through regeneration, in perfect 
accordance with his doctrine — " Verily, verily, 
I say unto thee, Except a man be born again he 
cannot see the kingdom of God."f But of this, 
more in its proper place. 

That the unchangeable and just God should 
visit the iniquity of the fathers upon the chil- 
dren, unto the third and fourth generation of 
them that hate him, as is declared in Exodus 
xx. 5, maj^ seem repugnant to our ideas of equity 
and justice. Nothing, however, is more certain, 
in the daily experience of our lives. There is 
no human being on the face of the earth who 
has not received more or less of this inheritance 
from his forefathers. "We recognise the fact 
continually, in justly ascribing to this or to that 

* The account in Luke vii. 48, does not conflict with this, 
although no outward diseases are specifically mentioned. The 
plain import of the term sins, under the Jewish Law, is so 
clearly given by our Saviour in rebutting the charge of the 
Pharisees, that no language could have been used more to 
the point, "Whether is easier to say, Thy sins be forgiven 
thee, or to say, Arise and walk V 

•j- John iii. 3. 



OF MAN IN THE FALL. 35 

stock or family, hereditary virtues or vices, 
moral, mental, or physical. But where lies the 
responsibility ? Not with the beneficent Crea- 
tor, who gave, with free agency, his whole power 
and wisdom to equip his creature for life's jour- 
ney through temptation. Eejected as he has 
been from the temple he formed for himself, he 
still is knocking for admission, and moulding 
the stubborn nature that refuses him an entrance. 
It is the very madness of folly to charge him 
with the result of rebellion against his authority. 
Were it possible for man to be restored to that 
state of perfection wherein he was created, 
without the dispensations to which he is sub- 
jected, the goodness of God would undoubtedly 
accomplish that end. But who dare choose — 
and the question is directly to the point — among 
all the communities of men, a circle of associates 
to be banded with throughout Eternity ? We 
hope for better companions than we find here — 
and too well we know that our best assurance 
against the oppression of our fellows is in the 
multiplied afflictions of life, and the certainty 
of its speedy termination. 



36 OF MAN IN THE FALL. 

One of the first consequences of the fall, 
therefore, as appears from the Sacred History, 
was fratricide — and that, too, under the most 
aggravated circumstances of guilt. The dia- 
bolical act of Cain, the first-born in sin, has had 
no parallel in atrocity since it occurred. We 
must reasonably suppose that his education 
could scarcely have been of a character to 
prompt such a crime. For his parents, though 
doomed to suffering and remorse, had known 
the joys of Paradise, and experienced sufficiently 
the results of transgression, to avoid that most 
unnatural part which such a course of training 
would imply. 

As we descend in the roll of the generations 
of men, amid a few redeeming characters re- 
corded, the universal degeneracy becomes so abso- 
lute, that we are told, " God saw that the wick- 
edness of man was great in the earth, and that 
every imagination of the thoughts of his heart 
was only evil continually. And it repented the 
Lord that he had made man on the earth, and 
it grieved him at his heart."* 

* Gen. vi. 5, 6. 



OF MAN IN THE FALL. 37 

We cannot believe that the unchangeable 
Deity would thus repent, and, in consequence, 
resolve to destroy man, whom he had created, 
from the face of the earth, if he had foreknown 
this result. Had he retained his prescience, as 
I have before shown, man could not have been 
a free agent. That he relinquished this prero- 
gative, is substantially asserted in the above 
quotation, where he is said to have repented 
the experiment — for experiment it was — and, 
through man's exercise of the free-will given 
him, in rebellion to that of his Maker, it failed. 

Let no one suppose that he magnifies either 
the character or the attributes of God, by an 
ascription of evidently impossible qualities, in 
violation of the plain meaning of the Scripture 
account. That it repented the Lord that he had 
made man on the earth, is positively asserted 
here. The same word, in the same unequivocal 
sense, is, throughout the Mosaic history, fre- 
quently employed to represent his change of 
purpose. Does this imply mutation in the coun- 
sels of the Most High? Certainly not. His 
purposes, in all his dispensations and dealings 
4 



38 OF MAN IN THE TALL. 

with his rebellious, deceitful, and ever-changing 
creature, are steadfast and immovable. As well 
may we predicate mutation of the sun, whose 
rays are quivering in every form through the 
foliage, the clouds, and the streams. On a true 
mirror, the orb is reflected in perfect symmetry 
and never-varying lustre — so, from the creature 
he formed, would God's attributes and glory 
have shone forth forever without variableness or 
diminution. But it seems otherwise in the mul- 
tiform phases necessary to reach the endless 
subtleties and transformations of sin. Thus, he 
is said to be angry, to be jealous, to hate, to 
avenge, &c. Yet all is in perfect harmony with 
his attribute of Love. "When we remember that 
his spirit strives with man for redemption from 
sin, as the fondest parent follows an erring child 
throughout his career of folly, with every pos- 
sible device, that may terrify, or lure, or reason 
him back to virtue, we have a never-failing key 
to the sacred narrative. 

The destruction of all that generation, except- 
ing only eight, by a God of infinite mercy and 
love, proves how hopelessly low the race had 



OF MAN IN THE FALL. 39 

sunk in degradation. I hold it as an axiom that 
every individual who ever trod the face of the 
earth, and that every one who may touch its 
surface hereafter, has had and will have, all the 
means specifically necessary to the salvation of 
his and her soul, that God, in infinite wisdom, 
power, and goodness', with perfect knowledge of 
each one's separate wants, can furnish. "With 
what feelings, then, must I look upon that con- 
dition of Adam's posterity, which made it neces- 
sary, in order to preserve the last flickering 
spark of life, to strike from around all else of 
animated nature ! All but these eight were cut 
off for their wickedness. Their day of visita- 
tion must, therefore, have passed by, and spiri- 
tual life could not be imparted. Their own 
position was hopeless before; and their simul- 
taneous removal was required for the preserva- 
tion of the few who yet remained accessible to 
the influence of the grace given for salvation. 

After this memorable epoch in our history, 
the interregnum was but short in the reign of 
evil. Again the same tendencies produced in 
the earth a similar result. It would appear, 



40 OF MAN IN THE FALL. 

however, that the desperate condition of the 
antediluvian race has never since been realized ; 
and, according to the promise then given, no 
similar catastrophe will again occur. 

I may here observe that, in regard to the 
chronology furnished in the account, and from 
which the date of man's creation has been cal- 
culated, I am free to confess my indifference. 
Even the increased time afforded by the Septua- 
gint version of the Old Testament, has been 
proved far too short for the recorded reigns en- 
graven upon the antiquities of Egypt. To me, 
it matters little whether or not science shall 
lengthen out the period of antiquity with added 
thousands upon thousands of years. The 
account of a vast interval in time, and a mighty 
extension in population, is too scanty and vague 
for criticism. A few important facts are given, 
so mingled in the obscurity of metaphor, that 
we must of necessity make allowance, in order 
to reconcile it with known natural laws. But 
the truth of the narrative is not affected by dis- 
crepancies in the text. I receive it as worthy of 
all credence, and am persuaded that in all parts, 



OF MAN IN THE FALL. 41 

when understood as intended, the Holy Scrip- 
tures will carry the internal evidence of their 
verity to every mind sufficiently experienced in 
spiritual things to comprehend the meaning of 
their writers. 

With these remarks, I shall dismiss the consi- 
deration of the state to which man fell by the 
transgression of the first pair. The remaining 
history in Genesis, after the account of that 
impious attempt, in the same worldly-wise spirit, 
to circumvent Omnipotence by building a tower 
whose top should reach to heaven, is devoted to 
the single family from whom sprang an espe- 
cially chosen people. This instructive and 
affecting narrative, together with that in the 
wonderful book of Job, affords an almost inex- 
haustible storehouse for illustration to the Chris- 
tian traveller. But they are ancillary only to 
the purpose of this work, which is to show the 
design and scope of the dispensations God has 
furnished for the redemption of his fallen 
creature. 



4 * 



42 INSTITUTION OF THE LAW. 



CHAPTER III. 

INSTITUTION OF THE LAW. 

To prove the tendency of the human mind 
towards idolatry and superstition, almost every 
page of its history may be cited with success. 
The loss of that revealing Light, by which only 
God can be known, left Reason to grope her 
way amid the inventions and contrivances that 
cupidity and ambition have ever been active in 
framing, to ensnare and subjugate man's affec- 
tions and fears. Hence we behold him, in every 
age of the world, a prey to the most degrading 
systems and rites of religion. Nor is it the pre- 
rogative of lofty intellect to have been an excep- 
tion to the rule. Knaves, it is true, have plotted 
and schemed successfully for empire over fools ; 
yet, though the masters of their jugglery, they 
have never escaped the servitude of a more 
rigorous tyrant than themselves. They have 



INSTITUTION OP THE LAW. 43 

bound heavy burthens, grievous to be borne, 
upon the shoulders of their victims; but even 
when, in despotic authority, they have lorded it 
supreme, their own condition has ever been, if 
self-deceived, more abject than their dupes, and 
if not, infinitely more miserable under the 
double yoke of ambition and remorse. 

At the period when the descendants of Jacob 
were groaning under the taskmasters of Egypt, 
we have every reason to believe that the world had 
almost universally lapsed into idolatry. The 
most forcible illustration may be drawn from the 
highly intellectual nation which oppressed them. 
For of all spiritual darkness, can we, from the 
testimony on record, discover any state more 
gross than that of a people whose sacred birds, 
beasts, and reptiles are still embalmed by mil- 
lions, and whose monuments, the greatest won- 
ders of the world, were raised to eternize their 
own corruptible bodies. Yet, at that time, the 
Egyptians were the most renowned and civilized 
of nations. From the valley of the Nile, science 
and learning poured forth their streams upon 
universal barbarism. They looked down, and 



44 INSTITUTION OF THE LAW. 

justly so, upon the far inferior condition of a 
world around, of which they were the lights and 
the exemplars. 

It seems to me clear that, in the counsels of 
Infinite Wisdom, a two-fold design was to be 
accomplished by the call of the children of Israel 
from Egypt, and their journeys to the land of 
Canaan. By the institution of a Theocracy — 
an outward, direct, and visible government of a 
nation by Jehovah — it was intended to rescue 
the world from that gross idolatry into which it 
had fallen. By the dispensation of the Law, a 
more general and lasting benefit was to be con- 
ferred on man — a most lively representation, 
through a series of types in the outward history, 
of that spiritual journey which the soul must 
take, from its first state of Egyptian darkness, 
to the promised rest of peace and bliss. 

The government of a nation by God himself, 
through mediums which men were accustomed 
to, and understood, is a spectacle unique in the 
history of the world. I may be told by the 
sceptic, that this isolated case is no exception to 
the long train of impostures in its imitation, 



INSTITUTION OF THE LAW. 45 

which history records. He may reject the mira- 
cles set forth in the account, as unworthy the 
credence of a philosophic mind — may refer to 
natural causes the successful passage of the Red 
Sea, and the marvellous supplies of water and 
sustenance to the hosts of Israel in the wilder- 
ness ; he may ascribe the pillar of cloud by day, 
and of fire by night, to the oriental custom of 
leading armies with a blazing beacon in their 
van ; he may class the Urim and the Thummim, 
the tabernacle and the tables of stone, with the 
heathen oracles, the auguries, and the sybilline 
leaves of antiquity ; he may show, throughout, 
a close parallel between the sacred and profane 
historian, and exhibit the former as but a servile 
imitator of the latter in his chronicles ; yet, for 
all this, he cannot overthrow one jot or tittle of 
my faith in the verity of the sacred records. 
Nor is this state the result of a blind and bigoted 
credulity, that will not listen to, and weigh the 
evidence with impartiality and candor. Still 
less do I repose upon the labors of biblical 
antiquaries, and rest satisfied with the basis of 
learning and logical proof upon which they have 



46 INSTITUTION OF THE LAW. 

established the authenticity of the Scriptures. 
To a far higher source I look with confidence 
for their confirmation as a true narrative of 
events which most surely happened, in ages too 
remote for much assistance from the glimmering 
lights and analogies of cotemporaneous history. 
Without undervaluing, then, the argument 
drawn in their favor from the present and past 
condition of that wonderful people through 
whom they are derived, I receive them impli- 
citly, because of the parallel they furnish me 
with what I have myself known. It is in my 
own spiritual Experience that I have found the 
strongest testimony to their truth. And albeit, 
in dealing with their professed believers — espe- 
cially those who call them the word of God, his 
exclusive revelation, and the highest rule of 
faith and practice — I have no need to speak in 
their defence, yet even these I shall hope to fur- 
nish with a better ground for their belief. If 
what I have laid down, and what I shall herein- 
after advance as predicable of the human race, 
be not consistent parts of a perfect whole, in 
which every link is necessary to the series, and 



INSTITUTION OF THE LAW. 47 

upon which God's plan for man's salvation alone 
rests, then will this strongest argument for the 
divinely-inspired character of the Holy Scrip- 
tures be made, as superficial religionists would 
consider it, the weakest. 

The immediate object of the Most High in 
establishing a Theocracy such as is set forth in 
the Mosaic account, must have been to lead the 
nations of the earth to a recognition of the one 
true and living God. By their descent and edu- 
cation, the Israelites were gradually fitted for 
the purpose. They were sprung from one whose 
title, "the father of the faithful," was merited 
by his ready obedience to a command which, of 
all others, best illustrates what is always required 
— the sacrifice of the heart's idol. Through 
their exalted ideas of this ancestry, and conse- 
quent exclusiveness, they were measurably kept 
intact, and their principles preserved, amid the 
general superstition of the age. With these 
feelings, they descended to the lowest depths of 
bondage. They became abject slaves, and were 
used to rear the detested monuments of pagan 
worship to the meanest of the creatures that 



48 INSTITUTION OF THE LAW. 

crawl upon the earth. It was in this very lowest 
estate that the Almighty condescended to visit 
them as a nation — gave them an outward leader 
— delivered them from their oppressors by that 
open and wonderful display of miracles — and 
directed their steps to a land flowing with milk 
and honey — a land of rest — of which these pro- 
ducts, as requiring no labor, were the appro- 
priate emblems. 

The inhabitants of this land were idolaters, 
and, like the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, 
doomed to extinction from their own vices, if 
not sooner destroyed. Instead, however, of fire 
and brimstone from heaven, the Lord overthrew 
them by the appointed hands of his chosen peo- 
ple. Of some, total extermination was required. 
Others were spared, but only as hewers of wood 
and drawers of water. But throughout the 
history, their wars and their oppression, their 
barbarous practices and their relentless extermi- 
nations, are directly referred to the command 
of God. No stronger instance occurs than the 
conduct of Samuel towards Agag, a helpless 



INSTITUTION OF THE LAW. 49 

prisoner, whom the prophet hewed in pieces 
before the Lord in Gilgal.* 

I have endeavored to show the position in 
which fallen man stands to his Maker, and the 
absolute necessity, in order to follow him in the 
devious courses he has chosen, that means should 
be specially adapted to the ends in view. Nor 
can I doubt for a moment that in all these cases, 
where the attributes of Deity seem to conflict, 
that the very best result for each individual was 
exactly that so decreed in the counsels of Om- 
niscient Wisdom. 

As above surmised, the first design in thus 
instituting a Theocracy, was to exhibit to a world 
of idolaters the fact of a nation under the direct 
and visible guidance of Jehovah. It is true, 
most certainly true, that God was worshipped in 
spirit by many others, who bowed down to wood 
and stone, and material objects, that world over. 
In their ignorance, their honesty gave them 
acceptance in his sight. But the tendency of 
false theories is ever to blind and bewilder, to 

* 1 Sam. xv. 33. 



50 INSTITUTION OF THE LAW. 

ensnare and enslave. Although at that period, 
and at every period before and since, each man, 
woman, and child, has had the never-ceasing 
care and counsel of Israel's unslumbering shep- 
herd — although salvation is an individual work, 
in which none can intermeddle between man 
and his Redeemer — yet the condition of the 
world required that public outward testimony to 
the existence and exclusive majesty of the God 
of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Hence, in every 
stage of its progress, this public testimony was 
rigidly required of the Theocratic common- 
wealth. The spoils, the symbols, and the pracr 
tices of the heathen were forbidden, under the 
severest penalties; and all intermixture that 
might weaken its strength in maintaining it, 
became an offence of the greatest magnitude. 

Notwithstanding this immediate direction of 
the Most High through its leaders, manifested 
by a constant display of signs and wonders, the 
children of Israel were a stiff-necked and rebel- 
lious people. During their wanderings, the out- 
ward tabernacle of God, with its visible sheki- 
nah, and at subsequent periods, the gorgeous 



INSTITUTION OF THE LAW. 51 

temple containing the memorials of their deli- 
verance, proved insufficient to fix on them the 
importance of this high and solemn trust. It 
was because of the hardness of their hearts, that 
the scale of morality inculcated in their law was 
necessarily low — that their religious rites were 
adapted from the prevailing customs of heathen- 
ism — and that a continual outward display of 
God's power, presented irresistibly to their 
senses, wak required. 

The second, and as I conceive by far the most 
lasting benefit to the world designed by the 
institution of this Theocracy, was a series of out- 
ward types. In these, through a language intel- 
ligible to the minds of all, the progress of our 
spiritual pilgrimage from the bondage of sin to 
the perfection of that state whence we are fallen, 
was admirably illustrated. No man acquainted 
with the history, and having made advances in 
the way to Zion, can fail to recognize a close 
resemblance between these types without, and 
the spiritual anti- types within. The sacred 
narrative has accordingly furnished an inex- 
haustible storehouse to every subsequent age, 



52 INSTITUTION OE THE LAW. 

and received a confirmation from the righteous 
in every generation. 

I have attempted to show the position occu- 
pied by man in relation to his Creator, both 
before and after his transgression. The conse- 
quences of that sin have been exhibited in his 
loss of the divine life, and constant tendencies 
to evil. The means of his redemption and res- 
toration are, I conceive, set forth, both from the 
testimony of Scripture writers, and its obvious 
parallel to our spiritual experience in that dis- 
pensation of the Law. I shall therefore proceed 
to develop its conclusion, and the benefits it has 
conferred. 



THE END OF THE LAW. 53 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE END OF THE LAW. 

That outward Theocracy, the history and the 
scope of which constitutes the principal theme 
of the Holy Scriptures, was, from its origin, 
destined to pass away. As its termination ap- 
proached, indications were presented, by pro- 
phetic teaching, of a higher and more glorious 
dispensation. I shall not follow, through the 
inspired writers, that continuous chain of pro- 
phecy foreshadowing its culmination and close. 
Nor do I esteem it of any consequence to advert 
to the separation of the children of Israel, and 
the eventual narrowing down of what formed 
originally the promised seed of the patriarchs, 
to a comparatively small remnant of the stock. 
The bulk of that race became idolaters, and the 
public testimony to the existence of the one true 
God fell, in later times, to the especial care of 
5* 



54 THE END OF THE LAW. 

the Jews. In tliem the prophecies were to be 
fulfilled, and the Law, as a Divine ordinance, 
ended. 

I proceed, therefore, from the Old to the New 
Testament, in order to illustrate as well what 1 
have deduced from the former, as to exhibit the 
plan of redemption there partly evolved, but 
explained and enforced in the latter. These two 
great sections of the Bible are complements of 
each other, as necessary for mutual support as 
the dispensations of which they treat. In 
speaking thus of its parts, I must repudiate the 
idea that I attach importance to what is called 
the sacred canon of the Scriptures. On this 
point, the disputants first mentioned are not 
themselves agreed ; nor is it to me of conse- 
quence what books are admitted or rejected by 
ecclesiastical councils or biblical critics. I can 
accord the text no higher authority than its own 
evidence furnishes, and its writers claim for it. 
The excellence of the Sacred Scriptures is deri- 
vative, and by no means equal. Yet I persuade 
myself that the commentaries offered in their 
use will prove me second to none in the high 



THE END OF THE LAW. 55 

estimate I place on them as a whole. Were I, 
however, called to discriminate by being com- 
pelled to choose one single book from the collec- 
tion, as pre-eminent for the matter, the style, 
and the importance of its subject, that book 
would be the gospel of John. 

This beloved disciple, and companion of our 
Lord Jesus Christ, commences his account, like 
Moses, with the Creation. "In the beginning' ' 
is the starting point with both — the one to depict 
the outward, the other the spiritual creation. In 
what beginning ? We cannot apply the idea to 
God, who was ever the same as he is. It is 
therefore the beginning, in the account of the 
evangelist, of the spiritual creation of man. 
" In the beginning was the Word, and the Word 
was with God, and the Word was God." "In 
him was life ; and the life was the light of men."* 
Is not this in full accordance wdth the statement 
of Moses, that God breathed into man — the true, 
immortal man — the breath of life, and man be- 
came a living soul ? As I have before shown, that 

* John i. 4. 



56 THE END OF THE LAW. 

life of God was the light of man, until, by rebel- 
lion, he lost it ; and, in consequence, his light be- 
came darkness. In the next verse, the evangelist 
tells us " the light shineth in darkness, and the 
darkness comprehended it not." He then intro- 
duces John the Baptist, the forerunner of that 
Light under the Law, and proceeds to state that 
the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, 
as the starting point of his narrative. 

This account is thus explanatory of the gos- 
pels of Matthew and Luke, from which we learn 
that Jesus Christ, of the lineage of David and 
Abraham through his reputed father, was con- 
ceived of the Virgin Mary by the power of the 
Highest, and born into the world in a manner 
unlike the genesis of every other child of the 
human family. It therefore necessarily follows, 
from the premises I have laid down as drawn 
from the Mosaic account of man's creation and 
fall, that the being thus introduced must have 
differed from all the posterity of Adam. He 
had, in common, a maternal ancestry up to the 
same source, but no like father. He was not, in 
consequence, affected with all else, by the origi- 



THE END OF THE LAW. 57 

nal loss of the Divine nature, farther than in the 
body and the mind, which, to a limited extent, 
may have been derived from his mother — how 
far, it would be presumption even to conjecture. 
The body, that is, the man seen of the Jews, as 
we outwardly see each other, was prepared of 
the mother; but the immortal, spiritual man, 
was directly of the Highest. Hence he was 
properly and tru]y called the Son of God — " God 
so loved the world, that he gave his only 
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him 
should not perish, but have everlasting life." * 

The whole historical account shows that he 
" was in all points tempted like as we are, yet 
without sin."f That, though he never diso- 
beyed, " yet learned he obedience by the things 
which he suffered : and being made perfect, he 
became the author of eternal salvation unto all 
them that obey him." % We must therefore infer 
that he could have disobeyed and fallen, as 
Adam and Eve did. I do not care to speculate 
on the consequences which might have followed, 

* John. iii. 16. f Heb. iv. 15. % Ibid, v. 8, 9. 



58 THE END OF THE LAW. 

but it seems sufficiently clear to my mind, that 
the terrible results of the first fall would have 
been equalled, if not exceeded. I speak thus in 
view of the little that has been accomplished in t 
the work of regeneration, after that only perfect 
outward display of the attributes of God has 
been exhibited to man. 

The Apostle Paul, in his epistle to the Gala- 
tians, has in a few words set forth the whole 
object of the legal dispensation. Chap. iv. — 
"Now I say that the heir, as long as he is a 
child, difiereth nothing from a servant, though 
he be lord of all : 

" 2. But is under tutors and governors until 
the time appointed of the father. 

" 3. Even so we, when we were children, were 
in bondage under the elements of the world : 

"4. But when the fullness of the time was 
come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, 
made under the law. 

" 5. To redeem them that were under the law, 
that we might receive the adoption of sons. 

" 6. And because ye are sons, God hath sent 



THE END OF THE LAW. 59 

forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, cry- 
ing Abba, rather." 

I have stated before, in substancej that the 
object, in the counsels of Infinite Wisdom, of 
that Theocratic institution, was evidently two- 
fold: the first, that it should serve as a powerful 
testimony to the existence of the one true and 
living God; the second, that thereby a repre- 
sentation might be furnished in a series of out- 
ward events, of what every soul must, to a 
greater or less extent, experience in its wander- 
ings from Its first heritage of bondage and sin 
to that state of rest, in which, becoming the 
son of God by adoption, it can truly cry "Abba, 
Father." 

The Law given through Moses, was binding 
on none but the nation for whom it was insti- 
tuted. With some of the fundamental com- 
mandments of morality and religion, it contained 
much that was adapted only to a state of great 
spiritual blindness and hardness of heart. 
Hence it was outward in all its parts — in its 
prescriptions, its penalties, its institutions, and 
its ceremonies. In its public rites, it was mo- 



60 THE END OF THE LAW. 

delled on the customs and habits of the age. 
Its sacrifices, its priests, its forms, its rituals, were 
adapted to the modes of thought then universal. 
Yet, though outward and temporary, it bears 
upon it the eternal stamp of Divinity in this — 
that while answering its immediate requirement 
as a code of legislation for a peculiar people in 
an age of national idolatry, it speaks, in its series 
of types, throughout all time to the church mili- 
tant on earth, a language known and recognized. 

The last of this series was the man so long 
foreshadowed, and thus miraculously introduced. 
He fulfilled and ended the Law as a divinely 
authorized outward institution. In him was 
perfected the whole design, and displayed the 
fullness of the Godhead bodily. 

I say this, not because it is substantially so 
written by the Apostle, but of the absolute 
necessity of its admission by every soul that has 
travelled through the Law into the Gospel dis- 
pensation. The Jews looked for him, but re- 
jected him — for the very plain reason that their 
eyes were blinded, their hearts hardened, and 
their hopes placed upon outward demonstra- 



THE END OF THE LAW. 61 

tions. In the state of a Eoman conqueror, he 
would doubtless have been received as their 
Messiah. As an obscure carpenter, although 
showing his claim by the strongest outward 
testimony, the miracles which carried proof to 
their senses, he was despised and put to death 
by his own nation. 

"With what I have above advanced, my induc- 
tions from the scripture history of the original 
and subsequent state of man, with the means of 
his restoration, may be brought to a close with 
an exposition of the character of Jesus Christ as 
it is represented by himself. In answering his 
disciples, who requested him to eat, he said, " I 
have meat to eat that ye know not of " — "My 
meat is t6 do the will of him that sent me, and 
to finish his work."* And in reply to Philip's 
request to show them the Father: "Believest 
thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father 
in me ? the words that I speak unto you, I speak 
not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in 
me, he doeth the works." f 

* John iv. 32, 34. t John xiv. 10. 

6 



62 THE END OE THE LAW. 

The whole tenor of his sayings and doings is 
but a continuous corroboration of the fact, that 
in all things he did the will of the Father — that 
he never exercised his own, and presumed to 
know good and evil for himself — that he could 
of his own self do nothing.* 

In the gospel of John, his beloved, and we 
have every reason to believe, most consistent 
disciple, the first doctrine preached by him is 
that of regeneration : " Except a man be born 
again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."f 
Yet although he said, "Ye which have followed 
me in the regeneration," he never required nor 
experienced it himself. He was the Son of God 
from the beginning — the true heir — the pure, 
perfect and undefiled temple of the Highest — a 
man made under the Law, the crown and close 
of all its types — the incarnation — the only out- 
ward manifestation of Deity in the fullness. 

"He that hath seen me," said he, "hath seen 
the Father;"! yet he told the Jews, "Ye nei- 
ther know me, nor my Father;"! and subse- 

. 2 

* John v. 30. f Ibid, iii. 3. 

J Ibid, xiv. 9. g Ibid, viii. 19. 



THE END OF THE LAW. 63 

quently gave the reason in his query and answer 
— "Why do ye not understand my speech? 
even because ye cannot hear my word." * 

To those who can now hear his word spiritu- 
ally, or in other phrase, "the hope of the Gospel 
which was," and is "preached to every creature 
which is under heaven," f there need be no fur- 
ther illustration of that great typical manifesta- 
tion through whom life and immortality were 
brought to light, and salvation purchased for a 
fallen race. To those who cannot, I must com- 
mend the subject as one worthy of all their 
patient inquiry and prayerful consideration, and 
as of the highest importance to their everlasting 
welfare. False theories in religion are perni- 
cious in the extreme. Although it is true that 
God accepts a man for that which he hath, and 
not that which he hath not, yet we are all more 
or less accountable for the opportunities pre- 
sented, and their right use. The day of the 
Lord's visitation comes equally, though diverse- 
ly, to every man ; and blessed is he whom neir 

* John ml 43. t OoL i. 23. 



64 THE END OF THE LAW. 

ther wilful ignorance, nor weakness, nor super- 
stitious fears, shall divert into the by-lanes and 
crooked paths of outward formality, and crimi- 
nal ease ; who shall not surrender his judgment 
to his fellow- worm, and travel a road which 
must lead to destruction or to peace, with less 
interest and discrimination than common pru- 
dence would furnish in any decision on worldly 
matters. " This is life eternal, that they might 
know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, 
whom thou hast sent."* The Jews knew nei- 
ther, because of their wilful blindness and hard- 
ness of heart ; they crucified the Son, although, 
as he declared, they knew not what they did, 
and thereby brought down the just judgments 
of Heaven, in their destruction as a nation. He 
who will not open the heart to receive him in 
the way of his coming, may find, too late, that 
he too has crucified the very Son of God. 



* John. xvii. 3. 



OF THE GOSPEL DISPENSATION. 65 



CHAPTER V. 

OE THE GOSPEL DISPENSATION. 

The great benefit we derive from the history 
of that chosen people, to whom the Almighty 
gave, through his appointed instruments, out- 
ward laws and ceremonies, is, as above stated, 
in the spiritual application of the instructive 
types therein furnished the traveller Zion- 
ward. No other nation but that had a govern- 
ment, both political and moral, emanating 
directly from the Most High. It did not, there- 
fore, bind the Gentiles, though it affected, more 
or less, their principles and practices, as holding 
up to view, amid their multiform idolatry, the 
ceremonial worship of a people to the one true 
and living God. By the advent of the Messiah, 
in whom the whole was to be fulfilled and 
ended, the Law, as a Divine institution, was 
merged, and thereafter " a better covenant esta- 
6* 



66 OF THE GOSPEL DISPENSATION. 

Wished upon better promises.' ' Not that the 
covenants or the dispensations of God are twain 
or changeable ; he is ever the same in his design, 
but condescends to meet the low estate of his 
creature, and to veil his effulgence from the 
spiritual vision not yet fitted to receive it. The 
Law was therefore the precursor of the Gospel 
— the schoolmaster to lead to Christ— in its spi- 
ritual application. Its outward rites and cere- 
monies were typical of great and essential truths. 
It " made nothing perfect, but the bringing in 
of a better hope did ; by the w^hich we draw 
nigh unto God."* 

I have endeavored to show that the Law of 
Moses was, to us who are not bound by it, typi- 
cal and figurative. It was given because of the 
hardness of heart which could receive nothing 
better. It was prescribed for a chosen nation in 
an age of general and most debasing idolatry. 
It conformed to the commonly received notions 
that superior beings, like fallible men, were to 
be propitiated and rendered favourable by offer- 

* Heb. vii. 19. 



OF THE GOSPEL DISPENSATION* 67 

ings. But offerings to the deities of the invisi- 
ble world have ever been, from that of Abel 
down to the holocausts of Polynesia, of victims, 
inferior or human. In view of the low condition 
in which man enters the world, a being of mere 
animal instincts and desires, it is not surprising 
that he should estimate his idols by his own 
standard. And hence it is that gifts and in- 
cense, springing from that in him which would 
bribe and flatter, have been his spontaneous 
votive dedications. In the dispensation to the 
children of Israel, this universal practice was 
sanctioned, but made subservient to the great 
object, as typifying that perfect sacrifice of a 
pure heart, which is indispensable to the fol- 
lower of Christ. 

I need not use an argument, nor make a quo- 
tation, to prove that the Law, as a public divine 
institution, ended by the one great sacrifice on 
Calvary, when the veil of the outward temple 
was rent in twain from the top to the bottom. 
All professing Christians assent to this fact. But 
I shall not, I fear, find the same acquiescence in 
the assertion that but few, very few compara- 



68 OF THE GOSPEL DISPENSATION. 

tively, have ever reached the Gospel dispensa- 
tion, even in public profession. The same ten- 
dency to substitute anything as an offering to 
the Creator, which will save alive the strong 
will of the creature, has caused him to borrow 
heathen and Jewish rites to inaugurate, as the 
substance of religion, under the sanction of what 
he calls Christianity. 

The Gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus 
Christ, "is the power of God unto salvation to 
every one that believeth."* The Apostle who 
thus defines, declares that it, i. e. the "hope of 
the gospel," "was preached to every creature 
which is under heaven. "f This is substantially 
the same with John, who saw " an angel fly in 
the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gos- 
pel to 'preach unto them that dwell on the earth, 
and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, 
and people, saying, with a loud voice, Fear God, 
and give glory to him : for the hour of his judg- 
ment is come : and worship him that made hea- 
ven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains 
of waters."| 

* Rom. i. 16. f Col. i. 23. % Rev. xiv. 6, 7. 



OF THE GOSPEL DISPENSATION. 69 

The Gospel thus preached to every creature, 
being the power of God unto salvation, was not 
of man, nor by man. It is the same life which 
was " the light of men, and which shineth in 
darkness: and the darkness comprehended it 
not." * This same power of God is the Com- 
forter, even the Spirit of Truth which Jesus 
promised his disciples; "whom," said he, "the 
world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, 
neither knoweth him : but ye know him ; for he 
dwelleth with you, and shall be in you."f It is 
the same power which Paul declared is to them 
which are called — "Christ the power of God, 
and the wisdom of God." J To follow, however, 
the synonyms, which all mean the same, would 
be to copy the most of John's Gospel, and much 
of the Epistles, and other books of the Holy 
Scriptures. The terms all agree as to the sub- 
stance, whether Christ speaks personifying God, 
as the Word from the beginning ; or concerning 
his church, as the head and leader; or the 
Apostles mention it as Christ within, the Holy 
Ghost, and by other names. 

* John i. 4, 5. t Ibid, xiv. 17. t 1 Cor. i. 24. 



70 OF THE GOSPEL DISPENSATION. 

It is the same power which Adam lost by- 
transgression, and in consequence died spiritu- 
ally. In the account, this state of death is again 
represented by his expulsion from Eden, and 
that lively type of the soul's regeneration — the 
cherubims and a flaming sword which turned 
every way, to keep the way of the tree of life. 
Under this flaming sword — the word of God — 
quick and powerful, piercing even to the divid- 
ing asunder of soul and spirit, must man pass 
to regain the tree of life. In other words, he 
must be born again — be baptized with the Holy 
Ghost and fire to consume all but what is pure, 
in order that he may come into the Gospel dis- 
pensation, which is beyond Adam — the state of 
Christ, who never fell. 

This power, or inspeaking "Word of God, has 
ever been dispensed to each and every individual 
severally, however low his state, until the day 
of visitation has passed over, and all hope of 
redemption is lost. It was the spiritual rock 
that followed Israel in the wilderness, and of 
which they drank.* However subject to the 
* 1 Cor. x. 4. 



OF THE GOSPEL DISPENSATION. 71 

outward law, yet they were individually ac- 
countable, with all other men, for what they had 
severally received. Some, both before and after 
the institution of the Law, as is testified of 
Abraham, saw the day of Christ, and were 
glad.* But by far the bulk of every age and 
generation, from the fall of Adam down to the 
time in which we live, never reached the inner- 
most sanctuary of the spiritual temple. They 
have voluntarily dwelt in the outer court, saying 
to some outward guide in the language of con- 
duct, as did the Israelites formerly to Moses: 
" Speak thou with us, and we will hear ; but let 
not God speak with us, lest we die." f 

The Apostle Peter illustrates this doctrine, 
when, in addressing those who had obtained 
like precious faith with him, he recounts to them 
what he saw upon the mount of transfiguration, 
and the voice he heard from the excellent glory, 
" This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well 
pleased," and adds: 

"We have also a more sure word of prophecy ; 

* John viii. 56. f Ex. xx. 19. 



72 OF THE GOSPEL DISPENSATION. 

whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto 
a light that shineth in a dark place, until the 
day dawn and the day star arise in your hearts : 

" Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the 
Scripture is of any private interpretation."* 
For, as he states in the next verse, "the pro- 
phecy came not in old time by the will of man : 
but holy men of God spake as they were moved 
by the Holy Ghost;" and it necessarily follows 
that it is not of private interpretation, or by the 
will of man, but by the same spirit which gave 
it forth. 

This more sure word of prophecy -*- the light 
shining in the dark heart of man, and but too 
rarely comprehended — is here placed beyond all 
outward testimony, as more certain than the 
evidence of the senses themselves. It is the 
same light — although the day of the gospel has 
not dawned in the soul, yet struggling under 
the clouds and darkness of outward systems, 
and forms, and ceremonies — yet in the bondage 
of the Law to the superstitions and prejudices 

* 2 Pet. i. 19, 20. 



OF THE GOSPEL DISPENSATION. 73 

of nature and education — which, as it is minded, 
will bring the brightness of Christ's dawn, and 
the glory of his meridian day. 

The gospel dispensation, wherein, to those 
that look for him, Christ appears the second 
time without sin unto salvation,* that is, not in 
the body (for which sin is sometimes used as a 
synonym), consists in the restoration of the order 
in which man was created. The government, in 
all things, being laid upon the shoulder of that 
new birth in the soul, the son given, whose 
name (which is his power) shall be called Won- 
derful, Counsellor, The Mighty God, The Ever- 
lasting Father, The Prince of Peace, of the 
increase of whose government and peace there 
shall be no end.f 

Under it, the spirit is brought into subjection 
to God immediately — the will of the creature 
being crucified or nailed, as it were, hand and 
foot, and the whole man subservient to the will 
of Omniscience, Omnipotence, and Infinite 
Coodness. The elder, which, since the fall, is 

* Heb. ix. 28. f Isaiah ix. 6, 7. 

7 



74 OF THE GOSPEL DISPENSATION. 

the first-born, is made to serve the younger, or 
that which is born of the Spirit. "As it is 
written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I 
hated."* In like manner the two sons of Abra- 
ham, the first of the bond woman born after the 
flesh, the other of a free woman by promise, are 
an allegory representing the two covenants — the 
one answering to Jerusalem under the Law, 
which is in bondage with her children ; the other 
to Jerusalem which is above, and free, the 
mother of us all.f The experience of the Apos- 
tle is a truth which all time will verify, that he 
that was born after the flesh, persecuted him 
that was born after the spirit. 

The gospel dispensation, in point of time, 
succeeded the Law when, on the day of Pente- 
cost, the Holy Ghost descended under the out- 
ward symbol of cloven tongues, as of fire. It 
was, nevertheless, that in which man was 
created, and from which he fell by spiritual 
death. As he comes into the world in this latter 
state (for death reigns from Adam to Moses), he 

* Rom, ix. 12, 13. f Gal. It. 22-26. 



OF THE GOSPEL DISPENSATION. 75 

must first receive the Law as a schoolmaster, 
and remain under tutors and governors, i. e. out- 
ward teaching, till the time appointed of the 
Father. In this condition he may, like the 
Apostle Paul, live in all good conscience, though 
a persecutor of the church of Christ. When, 
however, in the fulness of time, that is, when 
prepared for it, the Father shall reveal his Son, 
and take away the scales of blindness from the 
eyes, the stony nature from the heart — when he 
shall undergo that change which he must recog- 
nize and cannot resist — when, convicted of sin, 
he is forced to cry, "A Saviour, or I die," "A 
Eedeemer, or I perish forever" — then it is that, 
as to the young man formerly, who asked what 
good thing he should do to inherit eternal life, 
the unalterable terms are made known — the 
perfect surrender of all to the Divine will. At 
that juncture, he that keeps his life and turns 
away sorrowful, shall lose the eternal life he 
seeks ; and he who loses his life in all that hin- 
ders his spiritual progress, shall find in lieu of it 
that life eternal which is hid with Christ in God. 
Henceforward, he is one with Christ and with 



76 OF THE GOSPEL DISPENSATION. 

the Father — having his own natural will cruci- 
fied — and comes, by adoption, to the condition 
of a son of God, and joint heir with Christ. 

Among the last injunctions of our Lord to his 
disciples, was this: "What I say unto you, I 
say unto all, Watch."* At no stage is the cau- 
tion more necessary than when the soul has 
passed into the inner temple — the holy of holies 
— there to receive forever the law and command- 
ment directly from God. The sea of glass min- 
gled with fire, which John saw in the visions of 
light, is perfectly typical of the Christian's path 
— he is ever liable to slip and be consumed. 
Without absolute faith in his unerring guide, 
when temptation comes he may wander back, as 
did the Galatians, to the Law, and become en- 
tangled again with the yoke of bondage. Nay, 
he may transgress wilfully, and thus count the 
bloocj (or life) of the covenant, wherewith he 
was sanctified, an unholy thing, and do despite 
unto the spirit of grace. In this rebellion, it is 
impossible for such "to renew them again unto 

* Mark xiii. 37. 



OF THE GOSPEL DISPENSATION. 77 

repentance : seeing they crucify to themselves 
the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open 
shame." * The penalty, as in the case of Adam, 
is death. Wilful transgression, under the law 
of outward commandments, may be atoned for 
and forgiven ; under the gospel dispensation, it 
cannot, for it is blasphemy against the Holy 
Ghost. Nevertheless, who shall limit the good- 
ness and mercy of God, though the last state of 
such a man is far worse and more hopeless than 

the first ! 

. — ^- 

f Heb. vi. 6. 



7 * 



78 OF THE CHURCH. 



CHAPTER VI. 

OF THE CHURCH. 

Thus far, I have directed my examination to 
the original and subsequent state of man, with a 
view to rightly elucidate the subject, and dis- 
charge the duty imposed in this work. It is 
impossible to comprehend a part of so vast a 
theme, without some idea of its relation to the 
whole, as displayed by that whole itself. I 
have, therefore, considered the position in which 
I stand, as an immortal soul to be saved or lost, 
by an inquiry into the cause of my present con- 
dition — what I had in my ancestor at the crea- 
tion, and what now I have not, that renders me 
so sensible of my spiritual want. In developing 
the cause which has produced this state of death 
and darkness, with the means appointed for 
redemption from its bondage, I have but pre- 
faced that inquiry which a perusal of the book 



OF THE CHURCH. 79 

I first named, viz. : " The End of Religious 
Controversy,' ' renders absolutely necessary. For 
in this work, the author, Dr. Milner, maintains 
with no little ingenuity and astuteness, that the 
Roman Catholic communion, of which the Pope 
is head, has exclusive claim to be the Church of 
Christ. I perfectly agree with him in the axiom 
that out of the Church there is no salvation ; 
but I deny that the community of men for 
whom he claims that title, forms what is, as an 
unit, properly called the Church of Christ. 
Every individual of the human race, with capa- 
city to examine the subject, is directly and most 
vitally interested in the question; for on the 
correctness or the falsity of his theory depends, 
in the mind capable of making it, that choice 
which must lead to righteousness and peace, or 
to delusion and misery. 

What is the true church of Christ may be 
better understood by showing what is not. I 
propose therefore, to demonstrate that the Roman 
Catholic communion, an outwardly organized 
body of men with the Pope at its head, is not 
the true church. I concede no ground, of any 



80 OF THE CHURCH. 

kind or character, for the present or past as- 
sumption of the title ; and herein I hope to be 
more consistent than his antagonist, the Pro- 
testant Bishop I have named, who, in a 
qualified manner, admits the claim, and asks for 
his own organization an equal or superior parti- 
cipation in it. 

I have endeavoured to exhibit the clear, com- 
prehensive and scriptural history of the creation 
and fall of man, with its consequences. The 
latter I have shown to be almost uniform. His 
tendency to darkness and spiritual bondage is 
written indelibly upon every page of the chro- 
nicle. The proof that he escaped, and formed an 
exception to this general rule, after the cruci- 
fixion of the Son of God and martyrdom of 
nearly all his apostles, will indeed demonstrate 
him in a new phase of character. 

We have no evidence, however, of such a 
state of things. On the contrary, we find the 
apostles themselves sliding back into the beg- 
garly elements of an outward dispensation, and 
labouring continually to correct the same weak- 
ness in others. The light of the gospel dawned 



OF THE CHURCH. 81 

but gradually, even on the understandings of 
men who had heard it preached, throughout a 
long period, by him who spake as never man 
spake. It required a miracle to convince Peter 
that God is no respecter of persons — and, even 
in the exercise of his supposed apostolic pri- 
macy, he was reproved by Paul, who never had 
that outward commission which is considered 
necessary to constitute the title of an episcopal 
functionary in the church. 

The fundamental error of both the controver- 
tists to whose works I propose a supplement, is 
the analogy by which they claim to identify 
their respective hierarchies, as the church of 
Christ. Thus Dr. Milner says: "If a prince is 
desirous of showing his title to a throne, or a 
nobleman or gentleman his claim to an estate, 
he fails not to exhibit his genealogical table, and 
to trace his pedigree up to some personage, 
whose right to it was unquestionable. I shall 
adopt the same precise method on the present 
occasion, by sending your society a slight sketch 
of our apostolical tree, by which they will see, at 
a glance, an abridgement of the succession of 



82 OF THE CHURCH. 

our chief bishops in the apostolical see of Home, 
from St. Peter up to the present edifying pon- 
tiff, Pius VII., as likewise that of other illustrious 
doctors, prelates and saints who have defended 
the apostolical doctrine by their preaching 
and writings, or who have illustrated it by 
their lives."* In the commencement of this 
genealogical tree, he states that: — "Within 
the first century from the birth of Christ, this 
long expected Messiah founded the kingdom of 
his holy church in Judea, and chose his apostles 
to propagate the same throughout the earth, 
over whom he appointed Simon as the centre of 
union and head pastor ; charging him to feed his 
whole flock, sheep as well as lambs, giving him 
the keys of the kingdom of heaven and chang- 
ing his name into that of Peter, or Rock: 
adding, on this rock I will build my church" f He 
then deduces title downwards through his suc- 
cessors, as an heir would from his ancestor, in 
claiming an estate — the only difference being, 
that it descends from one incumbent to another 
by virtue of the office, and not because of in- 

* Page 168. t Ibid. 



OF THE CHURCH. 83 

heritable blood. In this respect the analogy- 
fails which he instances, as also that derived 
from its prototype, the Jewish priesthood. 

His antagonist, Bishop Hopkins, leaving this 
principle untouched, because his own pretensions 
are based on it, attacks the primacy or head 
pastorship claimed for the apostle and the see 
of Rome. And, in a long review of ecclesias- 
tical history drawn from Roman Catholic authors, 
shows breaks enough in the chain of descent to 
damage its validity before any impartial court 
and jury — to say nothing of the loathsome mass 
of human depravity through which the vicar of 
Christ must receive his inheritance. Through 
this long line, including many, very many of as 
corrupt, hypocritical, and wicked men, if we 
may judge by their acts, as the worid ever saw, 
the pure doctrines of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
have, by the Roman Catholic hypothesis, been 
received down to the present time, by oral tradi- 
tion.* The salvation of my immortal soul de- 



* The End of Religious Controversy, Letter X., page 
54. 



84 OF THE CHURCH. 

pends, therefore, on my believing as the infal- 
lible truth, what has been told from man to man 
through eighteen centuries — the most part of 
them, plunged in the gloom of mediaeval dark- 
ness. 

Before proceeding to take up the texts of 
scripture on which rests the whole of this won- 
derful fabric, I must advert to the merits of its 
rival, the church of England, as put forth by 
the bishop above named. As above stated, it 
also claims outward apostolic succession,* prin- 
cipally through the Roman Catholic church 
from which it was violently separated in the 
reign of Henry VIII.; collaterally, I infer, 
through certain British Bishops in the sixth 
century. Its champion does not, however, 
ground it exclusively on the dogma of outward 
succession. It would appear, from his exposi- 
tion, to partake of a mixed character, springing 
directly from the same root and growing from 
the same tree, yet drawing sustenance from 



* End of Controversy Controverted, Letter XXIII., vol. 
I. page 435. 



OF THE CHURCH. 85 

neither. The Roman Catholic denies vitality to 
any branch, which his specific outward church 
has severed from the trunk: — it is thereafter 
dead, and must ever remain so, unless rein- 
grafted upon the parent stock. Admitting the 
premises, the Episcopal Bishop differs in his 
conclusion, and is driven substantially from the 
doctrine of the outward succession to the en- 
larged definition of the Church of Christ, to 
develop which more fully is the object of these 
pages. I may confess that he has offered me a 
better apology for the origin of his church, than 
I had before met with. Yet, notwithstanding 
the respectable footing on which it is placed, I 
am still convinced that politics had much more 
to do with it than principle — I must regard it 
as I ever have, a state transfer of an anti-chris- 
tian hierarchy, wdth as much of the golden cup 
of its abominations as could possibly be con- 
veyed in the change. Its whole organization, 
as a political engine, is perfectly compatible 
with the aristocratic government of Great 
Britain. But how its strange anomalies can be 
reconciled, in any mind, with the republican in- 
8 



86 OF THE CHURCH. 

stitutions under which we live, is to me an in- 
soluble problem. 

It matters little what the commands of Christ 
were to his immediate apostles, and through 
them to others, unless he who alleges authority 
to act in virtue thereof, can produce the seals 
of his commission. The Roman Catholic 
endeavors to do this in a few, and, principally, 
two scripture texts — after which he runs into the 
boundless field of speculative opinion, among 
men who had mostly the same outward interest 
with himself to uphWd. The first, and founda- 
tion text, is taken from the gospel of Matthew, 
where Christ asked "Whom do men say that I, 
the son of man, am ? And they said, Some say 
that thou art John the Baptist ; some, Elias : 
and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets. 
He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I 
am ? And Simon Peter answered and said, 
Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. 
And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed 
art thou Simon Bar-jona ; for flesh and blood 
hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father 
which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee, 



OF THE CHURCH. 87 

That thou art Peter ; and upon this rock I will 
build my church : and the gates of hell shall not 
prevail against it. And I will give unto thee 
the keys of the kingdom of heaven ; and what- 
soever thou shalt bind on earth, shall be bound 
in heaven ; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on 
earth, shall be loosed in heaven."* 

This is the starting link of that chain of title, 
by which the Pope of Rome claims from Christ, 
as lineal successor of Peter, to stand his vicar on 
earth, with supreme spiritual power over all 
men, both in this world and that which is to 
come. And, truly, if the world never saw so 
vast an empire over the actions of men as its 
assumption created, it never yet witnessed so 
baseless a foundation for usurped authority. In 
its most literal, and perhaps strongest, aspect 
for the claim, it hangs upon a quibble, or play 
upon words, in the mouth of the Saviour. The 
text of Matthew stands alone and unsupported. 
Mark relates the commencing dialogue,f and 
ends the whole subject with Peter's confession, 

* Matt. xvi. 13-19. f Mark viii. 27, 8, 9. 



88 OF THE CHURCH. 

"Thou art the Christ." Luke substantially 
does the same in fewer words, and John is 
altogether silent about it. If the consequences, 
which have been justified from the above quoted 
text, had been intended, w r e can hardly believe 
it would have stood the solitary voucher for a 
claim of universal empire in all that chiefly 
concerns man. Especially would we expect 
some notice of so important an event, when we 
remember that the beloved disciple wrote his 
gospel long after the others had been promul- 
gated, and at a period when heresies had 
rendered outward authority, if it existed as 
claimed, sufficiently conspicuous for his percep- 
tion. 

Bishop Hopkins, in his "End of Controversy 
Converted," * shows a distinction between the 
words used in the original Greek. That pro- 
perly translated Rock differing from Peter, which 
means, a stone. He then adduces a number of 
passages from the Old Testament, in which the 
word Rock is figuratively applied to the Deity — 

* Vol. I. page 437. 



OF THE CHURCH. 89 

and from the New Testament to prove its appli- 
cation to Christ — concluding, as the result of 
his examination, with this paraphrase on the 
words of the Eedeemer. "Blessed art thou 
Simon Bar-jona, for thou hast acknowledged in 
me the divine and Almighty Rock of Israel. 
Flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto 
thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And 
I say unto thee that thou art a stone, a living, 
precious stone, which shall be set, along with 
thy fellows, in the twelve foundations of my 
celestial city. For, on the Rock which thou 
hast confessed I will so build my church, that 
the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. 
And to thee I will give the keys of the kingdom 
of Heaven, for thoU shalt be the first to open 
the church by the power of the Holy Ghost on 
the day of Pentecost. And whatsover thou 
shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, 
and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth, shall 
be loosed in heaven. And on all the other 
foundation stones in my heavenly city I will 
bestow the same high privileges. For on them, 
together with thee, after my great sacrifice is 
8* 



90 OF THE CHURCH. 

accomplished, and I have risen in triumph from 
the dead, I will breathe the breath of my divine 
power, and then will I fulfil my promise, by 
saying to all my chosen Apostles, Receive ye 
the Holy Grhost. Whosesoever sins ye remit, they 
are remitted unto them ; and whosesoever sins ye 
retain, they are retained."* 

This fanciful interpretation of the text to show 
that the outward succession in Christ's church 
was given the twelve apostles, proves too much; 
for in the case of the Apostle Paul, to whom 
was committed the gospel of the uncircumcision, 
a thirteenth foundation in the celestial city 
would be required. In fact, the manner in 
which this great apostle was called, is not only, 
as the Bishop expresses it, "decisive of the 
whole question about Peter's imaginary supre- 
macy," but of the outward succession itself; 
since the commission was by revelation, resisted 
at first by the other disciples, and acknowledged 
when demonstrated by the power that went with 
it. I must therefore reject this imaginary 

*Vol. I. page 441. 



OF THE CHURCH. 91 

speech, and confine my strictures to the very- 
clear distinction he has drawn from the text, 
between Peter, a stone, and Christ the Rock, on 
which his church was to be built. 

When Peter "answered and said, Thou art 
the Christ the Son of the living God," "Jesus 
answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, 
Simon Bar-Jona, for flesh and blood hath not 
revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in 
heaven." The contrast is here as strongly 
made as can be, between the outward speech 
and tradition of men, and the inward revelation 
of God. It is the outward speech and traditions 
of men, upon which rests the whole church 
structure of both these controvertists. Through 
flesh and blood alone, here synonymous with 
men, they respectively claim authority as com- 
missioned ministers of the gospel of Christ. 
But flesh and blood did not, nor could it, reveal 
unto Peter or any other apostle or man, the 
truth that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the 
living God. It was only by the revelation of 
the Father, in perfect accordance with what he 
elsewhere says, "No man can come to me, 



92 OF THE CHURCH. 

except the Father, which hath sent me, draw 
him:"* that the knowledge of Christ could be 
obtained. 

To elucidate the distinction, I may open at 
random upon almost any few lines in John's 
gospel, or, indeed, the epistles generally. I take 
the first my eye rests on : "Destroy this temple, 
and in three days I will raise it up. Then said 
the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple 
in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three 
days? But he spake of the temple of his 
body."f 

Here is a parallel which furnishes the key, if 
any were wanting, to unlock the meaning of the 
former saying. "Destroy this temple," — that 
is, the man before you — "and in three days I 
will raise it up." What I is this? Not the man 
whose natural life was taken, and whose body 
buried, any more than in the first case it was 
the man ; for of the man he said, " I can of 
mine own self do nothing" J — of course, neither 
build my church, nor raise my body to life. In 

* John vi. 44. f Ibid, ii. 19-21. % Ibid, v. 30. 



OF THE CHUHCH. 93 

both, the man was the temple — He personified 
the "Word — " Christ the power of God, and the 
wisdom of God"* — "Christ the truth and the 
life" — "the living God"— the Holy Ghost, of 
whom it is declared "Ye are the temple "f — 
" Christ in you, the hope of glory. "J In fact, 
to rehearse the various names used for that 
divine birth in the soul, whereby man is made a 
new creature, and the son of God by adoption, 
would require more space than could be allotted 
in this work. It was on this revelation of him- 
self as one with the Father, the Eternal Rock in 
every soul fitted to receive him, that Christ 
declared he would build his church, and the 
gates of hell shall never prevail against it. 

The parallel passage of Scripture introduced 
in the latter part of the above paraphrase, 
relates that Jesus, on the day of his resurrec- 
tion, at evening, "when the doors were shut 
where the disciples were assembled, for fear 
of the Jews, came, and stood in the midst, 
and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. 

* 1 Cor. i. 24. f Ibid, iii. 16, 17— vi. 19. 

t Col. i. 27. 



94 OF THE CHURCH. 

And when lie had so said, he showed unto them 
his hands and his side. Then were the disciples 
glad when they saw the Lord. Then said Jesus 
to them again, Peace be unto you: As my 
Father hath sent me, even so send I you. And 
when he had said this, he breathed on them, 
and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost. 
"Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted 
unto them ; and whosesoever sins ye retain, 
they are retained." * 

The inference here is, that they did not re- 
ceive the Holy Ghost at that time. They were 
shut up for fear of the Jews. On the contrary, 
when, at the day of Pentecost, they were filled 
with the Holy Ghost, they preached the Gospel 
publicly, freely, and fearlessly. The apostle had 
previously stated that the Holy Ghost was not 
yet given, because that Jesus urns not yet glorified^ 
connecting its gift with the glorification as a 
preceding cause. 

In the first quotation, it was revealed to Peter 
that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living 

* John xx. 19-23. f John vii. 39. 



OP THE CHURCH. 95 

God. Yet Peter certainly had not then received 
the Holy Ghost; for notwithstanding the reve- 
lation, he denied him, which, had he received it, 
would have involved that blasphemy not to be 
forgiven. Again, Jesus told him with the 
others, " It is expedient for you that I go away ; 
for if I go not away, the Comforter (which is 
the Holy Ghost) will not come unto you ; but if 
I depart, I will send him unto you." * So 
dependent were they on him outwardly, that, by 
his own assurance, the Holy Spirit would not 
come till he was taken away. 
P It is manifest, therefore, as is substantially 
stated in the first chapter of the Acts of the 
Apostles, that while Jesus was with them, they 
were under the Law. Although he had "blotted 
out the hand-writing of ordinances that was 
against us, which was contrary to us, and took 
it out of the way, nailing it to his cross,"f y e * 
they still looked to him in the flesh as he then 
was, raised from the sepulchre, and being to 
them little other than he had been before. The 

* John xvi. 7. t Col. ii. 14. 



96 OF THE CHURCH. 

Holy Ghost was not given till he, the end of the 
Law, had departed, and was received out of 
their sight. 

The commission then, in both instances, to 
remit and retain sins on earth and in heaven, 
was coupled with the gift of the Holy Ghost. 
In either case, our Saviour spoke as referring to 
their future state when it should have descended 
upon them. On this rock (Christ) I will build 
my church, and I will give unto thee the keys 
of the kingdom of heaven — that is, of God, 
which, he declared, "is within you." * 

"When a man is born again of water (which is 
John's baptism, that of repentance), and of the 
spirit, which is Christ's, the finisher of the Law), 
he can (and does) enter the kingdom of God.f 
In this kingdom, God reigns supreme. The will 
of the creature is crucified, slain, and buried. 
Man is made a son of God by adoption, and 
joint heir with Christ,! the only begotten Son. 
In. this state, he is again redeemed from the 
fallen nature, and the Holy Spirit of God 

* Luke xvii. 21. f John iii. 5. % Rom. viii. 17. 



OF THE CHURCH. 97 

descends upon the soul, its guide and governor 
forever. He then becomes a storie in Christ's 
spiritual church. As he hears of Christ, the 
power of God revealed within, he judges ; and 
his judgment is just, because he seeks not his 
own will. He judges not according to the 
appearance of outward things and circum- 
stances ; but, from the wisdom of God, judges 
righteous judgment. "Whatever, therefore, he 
binds on earth, is bound in heaven ; or looses 
on earth, is loosed in heaven.' The infallible 
church of which he is a member, and Christ the 
Head, is one, holy, universal — the same in the 
beginning, now, and forever. 

Having thus disposed of the principal founda- 
tion of the outward hierarchy, I proceed to 
examine the other passage of Scripture cited to 
prove the commission of the church to Peter. 
It is as follows : " So when they had dined, 
Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, 
lovest thou me more than these ? He saith unto 
him, Yea, Lord ; thou know T est that I love thee. 
He saith unto him, Feed my lambs. He saith 
to him again the second time, Simon, son of 
9 



98 OF THE CHURCH. 

Jonas, lovest thou me ? he saith unto him, Yea, 
Lord ; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith 
unto him, Feed my sheep. He saith unto him 
the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou 
me? Peter was grieved because he said unto 
him the third time, Lovest thou me? and he 
said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things : 
thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto 
him, Feed my sheep."* 

This text, taken in connection with what is 
recorded elsewhere, requires very little elucida- 
tion. It amounts to nothing more than an im- 
pressive and affecting exhortation to a warm- 
hearted but unstable follower. The character 
of Peter was impulsive and rash — as dangerous 
at times to the cause he espoused, as it was 
effective and serviceable when rightly directed. 
His affectionate attachment to the person of his 
Lord rendered him, no doubt, an object of soli- 
citude; but his ill-governed zeal might prove 
detrimental to the great mission. He rebuked 
the Master for his prophecy, for which he in 

* John xxi. 15-17. 



OF THE CHURCH. 99 

*turn was righteously rebuked by the severe 
expression, " Get thee behind me, Satan ; for 
thou savourest not the things that be of God, but 
the things that be of men." * He slept on the 
watch in Gethsemane — cut off the ear of the 
high priest's servant — and, despite his vehement 
boast, thrice denied him in the extremity of his 
need. Is not the verse in Luke on this last 
occasion, a sufficient key to the earnest exhorta- 
tions above quoted? "And the Lord turned, 
and looked upon Peter. And Peter remembered 
the word of the Lord, how he had said unto 
him, Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me 
thrice. And Peter went out, and wept bit- 
terly." f Nay, even at this last solemn inter- 
view, when, according to Dr. Milner, the whole 
church, "sheep as well as lambs," was turned 
over to him and his successors in office at Eome, 
we find him afterwards rebuked as an officious 
intermeddler. Wanting to know " What shall 
this man do ? Jesus saith unto him, If I will 

* Mark viii. 33. t kuke xxii. 61-2. 



100 OF THE CHURCH. 

that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee. 
Follow thou me."* 

It affords a melancholy evidence of human 
depravity to find language, so obvious in its 
import, wrested to bolster up the iniquitous 
theories of man's ambition. Frail indeed must 
be the materials, and still more scanty than 
frail, which his covetousness would glean from 
the sayings or doings of our blessed Lord, to 
warrant his unhallowed aims. Yet few and 
frail as they are, they suffice for the purpose. 
Superstition and slavish fear crouch readily to 
the tyrannous yoke of priestcraft. In all its 
forms and phases, this prospers with the mass, 
because it panders to the natural will, the natu- 
ral desires in man. To deny self, to take up 
the daily cross, and follow, in meekness and 
humility, the path of a crucified Saviour, is not 
so palatable as to be amused and deceived with 
false theories, that make religion an empty 
confession of words, and godliness an outward 
routine of ceremonies. It still, alas ! remains to 

* John xxi. 22. 



OF THE CHURCH. 101 

be a truth, and I fear, from all indications, will 
long remain so; that "wide is the gate, and 
broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, 
and many there be which go in thereat: 
Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the 
way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be 
that find it."* 

* Matt. vii. 13, 14. 



9* 



102 OF THE CHURCH. 



CHAPTER VII. 

OF THE CHURCH — (CONTINUED). 

In "Webster's Dictionary, we find no less than 
ten definitions to this term. I shall not enter 
into a critical disquisition as to its import. The 
subject of inquiry with us, is, what did Christ 
mean by the church he declared should be 
built by him on the Rock — which I have shown 
to be the revelation of God in the soul of man. 
We must turn to the sacred history for its clear 
elucidation. Paul says, that God "gave him 
(Christ), to be the head over all things to the 
church, which is his body, the fullness of him 
that filleth all in all."* And throughout this 
epistle to the Ephesians, he illustrates the sub- 
ject in so copious a manner, that I may scarcely 
quote by verses, but refer to the whole. The 

*Eph. i..22-3. 



OF THE CHURCH. 103 

substance, however, is every where the same, 
and confirmatory of what he there depicts it, 
the spouse of Christ — and elsewhere calls it, the 
"house of God, which is the church of the 
living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.' ' * 
The house of God, under the Law, was outward 
and figurative. The shekinah — the visible glory 
— was there. But, under the gospel dispensation, 
all these outward figures are spiritual truths. 
Paul wrote to Timothy, his son in the faith, that 
he might know how to " behave himself in the 
house of God." If he had stopped there, we 
might have a precedent for one ordinary 
meaning of the word church, viz : a building 
used for Divine Worship. But he explained the 
term in such a manner, that it can be conveyed 
by no idea predicated of outward things. No 
council, or synod, or assembly, that ever sat, no 
society that was ever organized, or community 
that ever existed, can be identified as the " pillar 
and ground of the truth." 

The language used by our Saviour, in pointing 

*lTim. iii. 15. 



104 OF THE CHURCH. 

out the method of settling differences, may be 
thought to conflict with this negative definition. 
Let us examine the text, and see what is the 
highly practical value belonging to his injunc- 
tion. "Moreover, if thy brother shall trespass 
against thee, go and tell him his fault between 
thee and him alone ; if he shall hear thee, thou 
hast gained thy brother. But if he will not 
hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, 
that in the mouth of two or three witnesses 
every word may be established. And if he shall 
neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church ; but 
if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto 
thee as an heathen man and a publican. Verily 
I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on 
earth, shall be bound in heaven ; and whatsoever 
ye shall loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven. 
Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall 
agree on earth as touching any thing that they 
shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father 
which is in heaven. For where two or three are 
gathered together in my name, there am I in 
the midst of them." * 

* Matt, xviii. 15-20. 



OF THE CHURCH. 105 

In this last passage of the quotation, we have 
the general apostolic acceptation of the meaning 
attached to the word church. Where two or 
more are gathered together in the name of 
Christ, there he is as the head and they are as 
the body. This is the visible Church of Christ. 
The name is a synonym for the power. Even in 
secular assemblies convened under the warrant 
of one in authority, a king or a ruler, his name 
sanctions its proceedings only by virtue of the 
power he delegates. So it is in the congregations 
of God's people met together, not to do their 
own but their Master's will. "When the high 
priest and his kindred asked, in reference to the 
miracle on the impotent man, "By what 
power, or by what name, have ye done this ?" 
Peter answered, " by the name of Jesus Christ 
of Nazareth," * thus showing the two to be con- 
vertible terms. So Paul declares, that God 
hath " given him a name which is above every 
name : that at the name of Jesus, every knee 
should bow, of things in heaven, and things in 

* Acts iv. 7, 10. 



106 OF THE CHURCH. 

earth, and things under the earth: and that 
every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is 
Lord, to the glory of God the Father." * Does 
he mean that when the name is pronounced by 
human lips, there shall be a genuflection, and 
that confession shall be audibly with the tongue ? 
This would stultify not only the text here, but 
that of the same import in Isaiah. "Look unto 
me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth ; 
for I am God, and there is none else. I have 
sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my 
mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, 
That unto me every knee shall bow, every 
tongue shall swear." f 

It is the power, therefore, in which the church, 
whether of two or two hundred, for numbers 
matter not, is gathered together, that constitutes 
it. The will of man has no place but in subjec- 
tion to Christ, the head, who is present in the 
midst. Its judgment is infallible — what it binds 
is bound, and what it looses is loosed in heaven. 
"What it agrees on touching any thing is done 

* Phil. ii. 10. t !saiah xlv. 22, 23. 



OF THE CHURCH. 107 

in heaven, for all that it asks is of the will of 
Christ, one with God the Father. This is the 
holy Apostolic Church — and such is the import 
of the term in the New Testament, whenever, 
as the organ of Christ, his authority is coupled 
with it. I may be told that of his apostles one 
was a devil, and others are exhibited as but 
fallible, and sometimes very erring men. That 
Peter and Judas might have agreed in opposi- 
tion to Christ — that the contention between 
Paul and Barnabas was so sharp that they de- 
parted asunder one from the other ;* and that 
the decision of what is commonly considered 
the first council f of the church, would appear 
to us somewhat puerile, after its members had 
been taught in person by the Head, and com- 
missioned by so remarkable an outpouring of 
the Holy Ghost. Nevertheless, the doctrine is 
indisputably true, and the authority for it is 
from the fountain and not the streams. The 
sayings and the doings, the spirit and the ex- 
ample of our Lord Jesus Christ, are worth more 

* Acts xv. 39. \ Ibid. 20. 



108 OF THE CHURCH. 

to the human family, than all its accumulated 
treasures of learning and literature, drawn from 
a countless host of fallible authorities. The 
instruction they convey is eminently practical, 
and conducive to our true temporal as well as 
eternal interests. Never man spake like him — 
never man lived like him. And whoever will 
seek wisdom, must receive in simplicity and 
singleness, his doctrine. "Whoever will attain 
happiness, must follow his footsteps in the path 
of self-denial, irrespective of the opinions and 
the contradictions of men. 

The test, by w T hich to know the church, is its 
power — not physically, nor politically, nor even 
morally — for all these may be possessed by men, 
and yet the holy name of Christ be denied, or 
in the strong scripture term, blasphemed. 
Christ gave the criterion by which false prophets 
may be known, viz: by their fruits.* The 
Apostle John tells the brethren to "believe not 
every spirit, but try the spirits, whether they are 
of God ; because many false prophets are gone 

* Matt. vii. 16. 



OF THE CHURCH. 109 

out into the world. Hereby knew ye the Spirit 
of God ; every spirit that confesseth that Jesus 
Christ is come in the flesh, is of God." * He 
then states the converse, and explains the 
difference between the Spirit of Christ and 
Anti-christ. The fifteenth verse contains the 
substance of the whole doctrine : " "Whosoever 
shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God 
dwelleth in him, and he in God." Can any one 
suppose that the confession here meant, is a 
confession of the tongue ? Is it not obvious to 
the simplest comprehension, that the confession 
is of the heart to God ? Most certainly, how- 
ever, all that was written of Jesus Christ out- 
wardly, will be confessed before men, and not 
only in speech, but in conduct, by that heart 
which confesseth that he is come in the flesh. 
That he is come a Saviour from sin, a Redeemer 
from all the spiritual bondage of human tradi- 
tions, and inventions, to introduce the soul into 
the glorious liberty of the children of God. In 
the maintenance of that confession, " God 

* 1 John iv. 1-2. 

10 



110 OF THE CHURCH. 

dwelleth in him, and he in God/' as man was 
originally created. 

The Apostle Paul tells the church at Corinth, 
in illustrating the hidden wisdom of God, that 
" the natural man receiveth not the things of 
the Spirit of God ; for they are foolishness unto 
him : neither can he know them because they 
are spiritually discerned."* With such, vain 
would be every effort to set forth a clear idea of 
the Church of Christ. But I think it very pos- 
sible to show what it is not. I have no contro- 
versy with the members of any sect or commu- 
nity, except so far as they claim the right to 
direct me in the way of salvation, and to bind 
on me what I know to be spiritual burdens. 
Their assumption of a title affects me but little — 
but when doctrines are published as gospel 
truths, subversive of the religion I profess, as 
the only hope of my redemption, then the case 
is widely different. I must judge and decide 
whether their promulgators are true or false 
prophets. If true, they are the messengers of the 

* 1 Cor. ii. 14. 



OF THE CHURCH. Ill 

Highest, and it were better that a mill-stone 
were hanged about my neck, and that I were 
drowned in the depth of the sea, than that, by 
opposing them, I should offend the Majesty 
they represent. If false, and erring wilfully, 
they are impostors of the deepest dye — for to 
gain to themselves a temporary advantage in 
this life, they would entangle me, through 
sophistry and superstition, and hazard my ruin, 
both body and soul. 



112 OF THE MINISTRY. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Or THE MINISTRY. 

" Christ's last commission to his apostles," 
says Dr. Milner,* " was this : Gro teach all 
nations , baptizing them in the name of the Father, 
and of the Son, and of the Holy Grhost, and lo ! I 
am with you always even unto the end of the 
world. Matt, xxviii. 20. Now the event has 
proved, as I have already observed, that the 
apostles, themselves, were only to live the ordi- 
nary term of man's life ; therefore, the commis- 
sion of preaching and ministering, together 
with the promise of the Divine assistance, re- 
gards the successors of the apostles, no less than 
the apostles themselves. This proves that there 
must have been an uninterrupted series of such 
successors of the apostles in every age since 

* End of Controversy, Letter XXVIII. 



OF THE MINISTRY. 113 

their time, that is to say, successors to their 
doctrine, to their jurisdiction, to their orders, and 
to their mission. Hence it follows that no re- 
ligious society whatever, which cannot trace its 
succession, in these four points, up to the 
apostles, has any claim to the characteristic 
title, Apostolical/ ' 

From what is above predicated in regard to 
the church, it will be seen that the last infer- 
ence, to prove an outward succession of pastors, 
ordained one of another and instructed one of 
another to teach them to observe all things 
whatsoever he had commanded, is purely gra- 
tuitous. It is true that the charge to those then 
about him, will, to a certain extent, include all 
who were to succeed in their mission. But it is 
not true that the command, even to them, was 
without qualification — for they were expressly 
told to tarry in the city of Jerusalem until they 
were endued with power from on high.* In the 
concluding part Christ says, Lo ! I am with you 
always. Surely this power, which is the Com- 



* Luke xxiv. 49. 

10* 



114 OF THE MINISTBY. 

forter, the Holy Ghost, Christ within, had some- 
thing to do with the commission. But if it was 
merely by word of mouth, to tell others what 
they had outwardly heard of him, (and this is 
the Roman Catholic doctrine of tradition,) then 
I grant the conclusion as deducible from the 
premises. In the foregoing chapter, I have 
shown his exposition of the church, and his pro- 
mise, in accordance with that above to his 
ministers, — "Where two or three are gathered 
together in my name, there am I in the midst 
of them." Of course, to "the end of the 
w T orld," as he is with his messengers. But no 
disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ, any more than 
his commissioned minister to preach the ever- 
lasting gospel, ever received the power to confess 
or to baptize, without first tarrying at Jeru- 
salem — "a quiet habitation, a tabernacle that 
shall not be taken down ; not one of the stakes 
thereof shall ever be removed, neither shall any 
of the cords thereof be broken."* This Jeru- 
salem is that state of the soul's rest, wherein it 

* Isaiah xxxiii.20. 



OF THE MINISTRY. 115 

waits submissively to receive power from on 
high, and to do the Master's will. 

Christ declared of his own mission, "I am 
not sent, but unto the lost sheep of the house 
of Israel. "* In sending the twelve apostles, he 
limited them to the same circuit, with the 
charge, " freely ye have received, freely give;"f 
and the assurance " It is not ye that speak, but 
the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in 
you." J Again, when the Law was ended, like 
limited allotments were made by the Power that 
commissioned the apostles. To Peter was com- 
mitted the gospel of the circumcision, and to 
Paul that of the uncircumcision,§ to say nothing 
of the latter's call, altogether, by the Spirit. I 
conclude, therefore, that they who teach without 
waiting for power from on high, and without 
the specific command from Christ, who is always 
with his church and his ministers, are of the 
class who run without being sent, and who pro- 
phesy without being spoken to.|| 

The Apostle Peter says, " As every man hath 

* Matt. xv. 24. f Ibid. x. 6-8. % Ibid, 20. 

I Gal. ii. 7. || Jer. xxiii. 21. 



116 OF THE MINISTRY. 

received the gift, even so minister the same one 
to another, as good stewards of the manifold 
grace of God. If any man speak, let Mm speak 
as the oracles of God : if any man minister, let 
Mm do it as of the ability which God giveth ; 
that God in all things may be glorified through 
Jesus Christ:"* and Paul gave the church at 
Corinth to understand "that no man can say 
that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy 
Ghost," f 

When the multitude, on the day of Pentecost, 
mocked the apostles, Peter told them — " This is 
that which was spoken by the prophet Joel: 
And it shall come to pass in the last days (saith 
God), I will pour out of my spirit upon all flesh ; 
and your sons and your daughters shall pro- 
phesy, and your young men shall see visions, 
and your old men shall dream dreams : And on 
my servants and on my hand-maidens, I will 
pour out, in those days, of my Spirit : and they 
shall prophesy." J 

The evangelical prophet Isaiah, evidently in 

* 1 Pet. iv. 10, 11. f 1 Cor. xii. 3. 

% Acts ii. 16-18. 



OF THE MINISTRY. 117 

reference to the gospel dispensation, states that 
"thy teachers shall not be removed into a 
corner any more, but thine eyes shall see thy 
teachers : and thine ears shall hear a word 
behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in 
it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye 
turn to the left."* This is in correspondence 
with the testimony of the Apostle John : " But 
the anointing which ye have received of him 
abideth in you, and ye need not that any man 
teach you : but as the same anointing teacheth 
you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and 
even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in 
him."f And again: "Ye have an unction 
from the Holy One, and ye know all things.' , J 

Scripture texts may be multiplied to prove 
the doctrine here set forth. It is the same laid 
down by Christ to his apostles : " The Com- 
forter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the 
Father will send in my name, he shall teach 
you all things, and bring all things to your 

* Isaiah xxx. 20-1. f 1 John ii. 27. 

t Ibid, 20. 



118 OF THE MINISTRY. 

remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto 
you."* 

I ask now, in view of these emphatic truths, 
and of the whole concurrent testimony of the 
righteous in all generations, from what source is 
the doctrine that man may ordain and commis- 
sion his fellow-worm to preach the gospel of our 
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ? Let us exa- 
mine the motives which have grafted so poison- 
ous a shoot upon the true vine. Christ com- 
manded his disciples, "Freely ye have received, 
freely give." Paul was very solicitous that he 
might not make the gospel chargeable.f His 
own hands ministered to his necessities, and to 
them that were with him. J It is true that, in 
the ninth chapter of his first epistle to the 
Corinthians, he quotes from the law of Moses to 
show that "they which minister about holy 
things, live of the things of the temple : and 
they which wait at the altar, are partakers with 
the altar." "Even so," says he, "hath the 
Lord ordained, that they which preach the gos- 

* John xiv. 26. 

t 2 Cor. xi. 9, 1 Thes. ii. 9, 2 Thes. iii. 8. J Acts xx. 34. 



OF THE MINISTRY. 119 

pel should live of the gospel" — verses 13, 14. 
Few passages have been more "wrested" to 
selfish purposes than this, although very easily 
understood from what follows. The train of 
reasoning he adopts, leads to a conclusion he 
repudiates expressly in his own practice, and 
that, too, in the strongest terms — "It were 
better for me to die than that any man should 
make my glorying void." Peter's testimony is 
still stronger when rebuking Simon the sorcerer, 
who had believed and been baptized ; the latter 
desired the power to confer the Holy Ghost, and 
would have paid for his education as a minister 
— "Thy money perish with thee," said the 
apostle, "because thou hast thought that the 
gift of God may be purchased with money." * 

I have shown before, that every member of 
Christ's church, out of which there is no salva- 
tion, must have his will in subjection to its holy 
Head, and, as a consequence, be like passive 
clay, to be moulded, and fashioned, and fitted 
in the spiritual house, as seemeth good to the 

* Acts viii. 9-20. 



120 OP THE MINISTRY. 

heavenly architect. "When we refer to the pre- 
sent and past state of what the controvertists I 
have spoken of, respectively call "the church," 
it will not be difficult to discover that covetous- 
ness and ambition have built up the incongruous 
structures so elaborately defended in their works. 
I shall do little more than refer to these for a 
description of the colossal, but baseless images, 
whose deformity they have severally unveiled. 
Their type may be found in that which King 
Nebuchadnezzar beheld, with a head of fine 
gold, breast and arms of silver, but legs and 
feet of iron and clay. 

In the one, the chief pastor affects to call 
himself the servant of servants, but substantially 
claims to be lord of lords, and king of kings.* 
"With the imaginary keys of St. Peter to open 
or to close the gates of Paradise upon whom he 
will, his aim has ever been, and most success- 
fully, to reign on earth in all the gorgeous trap- 
pings of temporal greatness. Least of all men 
could the pontiff of Rome, such as he appears 

* See End of Controversy Controverted, Lett. XLIL, Vol. 
II., page 338. 



OF THE MINISTRY. 121 

to us on the page of history, vouch his position 
and his works in proof, as a follower of him who 
was meek and lowly in heart. As we investi- 
gate the rise and progress of his vast empire 
over the governments of this world, w r e discover, 
in the machinery employed, the secret both of 
its motives and its success. It succeeded, by a 
systematic course of tactics imitative of the 
world's conquerors, in separating from the mass 
an army, outside of, and unaffected by the 
general interests of mankind. He who will 
permanently enlist men in a cause antagonistic 
to the peace and welfare of the community, 
must first sever the links which bind his instru- 
ments in the bosom of society as constituent 
portions. Such is the only mode practically 
effective in the consolidation of military power. 
The soldier is detached from the social ties of 
family and kindred; and by pandering to his ani- 
mal appetites, by still further debasing the natu- 
rally depraved tendencies of his mind, by cre- 
ating new and abnormal interests in his breast, 
he is made the servile, unquestioning, and effec- 
tive tool of ambition. So, by the prohibition 
11 



122 OF THE MINISTRY. 

of marriage to its clergy, the Eoman hierarchy 
sundered effectually the bond of union between 
it and the human family at large. I have before 
shown the rottenness of the foundation whereon 
the whole structure rests. It is not, therefore, 
surprising that a few random passages from the 
epistles of Paul, wherein he spoke confessedly 
of himself, and not by commandment, together 
with forced analogies drawn from figurative 
illustrations elsewhere, should be ample warrant, 
in such hands, for this mortal blow at the 
strongest bond of society, and the surest pledge 
of its w r elfare. Without such a prohibition, that 
vast body of cosmopolites, the Eoman Catholic 
priesthood, comprising every variety of opinions 
and modes of action, and covering every species 
of iniquity which would tend to the increase of 
their power, could never have been created and 
maintained. 

I am willing to concede as much of purity to 
its offspring, the so-called Church of England, 
as its political origin and the temper of the times 
will warrant. But reformed as it is, in many 
respects, and enlarged as are the principles 



OF THE MINISTRY. 123 

which regulate its intercourse with rival com- 
munities, it owes its freedom from the most 
revolting doctrines of the parent, more to out- 
ward circumstances, than to the honest search 
after truth. It is Romanism substantially, but 
in a different dress, to suit the refinement and 
the pride of independence which characterize 
Englishmen. I am amused, while I am in- 
structed, in observing the contrast of temper 
throughout this family quarrel. All the acer- 
bity mutually displayed in holding up the defor- 
mities of rival claimants to the same lineage, 
ends in petty issues on the veriest trifles that 
can occupy the attention of a serious mind. 
The supremacy of Peter over the other apostles, 
involves, it is true, the question of political 
chieftainship. The motives which prompted 
Henry VIII. to break asunder the bond that 
linked his kingdom with the Papacy, are impor- 
tant so far as they affect the origin of the 
Anglican church. But the administration of 
the cup to the laity, the number of the sacra- 
ments, the distinction between consubstantiation 
and transubstantiation, with other like frivolous 



124 OF THE MINISTRY. 

questions, seem but small matters to call forth 
such an amount of controversy. Yet, in their 
hot disputes as to the manner of ty thing mint, 
anise, and cummin, they are perfectly agreed 
about the paramount importance of its being 
done. Amid all the crimination and recrimina- 
tion, it is evident, as was manifested in the cor- 
respondence between Archbishop "Wake and the 
Doctors of the Sorbonne, appended to Mosheim's 
Ecclesiastical History, that fraternal love and 
unity would be perfectly restored by a satis- 
factory settlement of the outward patrimony. 

I have said before, in substance, that it was to 
me a problem how republicans can reconcile the 
inconsistencies of this aristocratic institution, 
with the forms of government under which we 
live. It may be proper to enlarge a little at this 
stage of the inquiry. "Will it be denied that the 
divine right of kings to govern, and the divine 
right of bishops to rule, have their origin from 
one and the same source? Are they not the 
twin conception of superstition and craft ? They 
were born, and have lived and flourished, side 
by side, the banded scourges of mankind, in 



OF THE MINISTRY. 125 

royal despotism and papal supremacy. Their 
strength was greatly crippled on the soil of our 
ancestors, in the change to a constitutional 
monarchy and a reformed church. In our own 
free and Christian polity, they are both happily 
dead and buried — would I could hope, forever ! 
— as axioms of wisdom in the control of human 
affairs. But nevertheless, parts .of the commu- 
nity still cherish the form of one, and thereby 
render themselves inconsistent, in practice, with 
their principles. It is no more self-evident that 
"all men are created equal," than that all have 
equal access to God. Nay, the former is but an 
abstract political truth, and if applied to our 
condition as we come into the w r orld, altogether 
false in fact. "Whereas, from the very attributes 
of Deity, the unequivocal testimony of the Holy 
Scriptures, and the spontaneous outcry of his 
creature everywhere, and in all ages, the latter 
is not susceptible of a doubt. Why, then, deny 
that the Christian church is a pure democracy, if 
such a term may be used to illustrate the condi- 
tion of its members as equal ? Why establish, 
or rather continue, from the effete and corrupt 
11* 



126 OF THE MINISTRY. 

institutions of England and Rome, the orders, 
the titles, and the honors, which are as repug- 
nant to the genius of republicanism as they are 
opposed to the express commands of Christ ? 

It seems hardly necessary to make quotations 
to prove a matter so familiar to every reader of 
the gospels ; but lest any should feel a doubt 
about the fact, and be unable to refer readily to 
the texts, I offer a few instances in point. 
Speaking of the scribes and Pharisees who sat 
in Moses' seat under the Law, his degenerate 
but still recognized outward successors, Jesus 
told his disciples that they loved distinction, and 
to be called of men Rabbi. "But," said he, 
"be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your Master, 
even Christ : and all ye are brethren* And call 
no man your Father upon the earth ; for one is 
your Father w T hich is in heaven. Neither be ye 
called masters : for one is your Master, even 
Christ. But he that is greatest among you, 
shall be your servant."* Again, when the 
young man applied the term Good Master, Jesus 

* Matt, xxiii. 8-11. 



OF THE MINISTRY. 127 

rebuked him with the question, " Why callest 
thou me good?" and the asseveration "There is 
none good but one, that is God." * On another 
occasion, he said to the Jews, "How can ye 
believe, which receive honor one of another, and 
seek not the honor that cometh from God 

only?"t 

This last text is very significant, for Christ 
had just referred them to their Scriptures 
(which, though wrested to suit their purposes, 
were held up by them as an infallible test), in 
order to prove his mission. Their condition is 
ascribed, in the query, to its true cause. 

If I mistake not, the official style or title of an 
English Bishop, is V Most reverend father in 
God." The letters of the American Bishop are 
addressed to " The most reverend Francis Patrick 
Kenrick, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Balti- 
more." How far this flattering title conflicts 
with the dignity of a citizen of our republic, and 
the duty of a professed disciple of Christ, as 
shown in the foregoing quotations, must be left 
for the reader to judge. 

* Mark x. 18. t ^ohn v. 44. 



128 OP THE MINISTRY. 

I shall not embellish my argument with a 
superfluous account of that national church from 
which his is derived, and its enormous revenues 
wrenched by law from all ; but proceed to exa- 
mine the position of a minister under the less 
Dbjectionable voluntary system of payment, as 
we find it here. 

Every man who has to earn a livelihood for 
himself and family, undertakes the study of some 
business or profession, in order to exchange the 
product of his labor for the subsistence and the 
comforts he requires. If he gain a knowledge 
of medicine, his services are worth the conside- 
ration for which he offers them to the commu- 
nity, as a healer of diseases. If an acquaintance 
with the laws is obtained, he barters it fairly for 
the requisite share of common property, and 
gives a quid pro quo for that he receives. But I 
deny that there is value given in preaching a 
sermon, performing a rite, or visiting a parish- 
ioner, for money. It is true that the ear may be 
gratified with an eloquent discourse, the educa- 
tional scruples may be relieved by an outward 
ceremony, and the feelings solaced in a profes- 



OF THE MINISTRY. 129 

sional call. But the object is not, as in the other 
cases, to be gained by the purchased services. 
By the advice and assistance of the lawyer or 
physician, I may recover, respectively, my pro- 
perty or my health. I know that the means I 
employ are directly adapted to the end in view. 
I pay them for something real, which their pro- 
fessional studies have enabled them to give. 
But it is not so in regard to the counsel I may 
buy for the salvation of my immortal soul. All 
the linguists, the logicians, and the orators in 
the world, could they concentrate their energies, 
would not suffice to impart the " grace of God 
that bringeth salvation, and hath appeared to all 
men."* 

So far is this from being the case, that the 
means thus used have a direct tendency to frus- 
trate the object I profess to aim at. I feel my- 
self in want of spiritual help — am desirous of 
attaining a state of security as to the course best 
adapted to reach the haven of peace and bliss — 
I know that my stay here is but short, and I 

* Titus ii. 11. 



130 OF THE MINISTRY. 

have the inward consciousness of an eternity 
hereafter — I must find that certain rule spoken 
of at the commencement of this work, which 
will guide me to rest. Well ! surely when the 
la&d is filled with ready counsellors, I need not 
go far to seek it. Here is the associate of Dr. 
Milner, with his advertisement, "The End of 
Eeligious Controversy,' ' to satisfy my doubts. 
The one holy, catholic, and apostolical church is 
before you, says he; the doors are open — 
nothing so easy as to enter, profess your alle- 
giance, and settle your scruples forever. Here 
is her genealogy — you see the title deduced 
straight from Christ down to the u present edify- 
ing pontiff of Rome" — and here is my commis- 
sion under his seal, with the fisherman's ring, to 
bind or to loose you on earth and in heaven. 
" In fact, no inquiry is so easy, to an attentive 
and upright Christian, as to discover which is 
the true church of Christ : because, on the one 
hand, all Christians agree in their common 
creeds concerning the characters or marks which 
she bears ; and because, on the other hand, these 
marks are of an exterior and splendid kind, such 



OF THE MINISTRY. 131 

as require no extensive learning or abilities, and 
little more than the use of our senses and common 
reason, to discern them."* Enter, then, our 
venerable church, for out of it there is no salva- 
tion. You, having the opportunity thus offered, 
will be inevitably damned forever if you refuse. 
I am somewhat staggered at the self-possession 
of this complacent speaker. Nevertheless, I 
choose to risk a few days longer the possibility 
of being cut off under this terrible anathema. 
But what have we next? Another claimant, 
though far more modest in his pretensions, to 
the keys of the kingdom of heaven. He also 
exhibits his genealogy and exterior marks. But 
I find that he relies far more for success, in 
proving the other most hypocritical, corrupt, 
and wicked, than upon any independent merits 
of his own church. I perceive, too, that there 
is a deadly rivalry between them ; yet neverthe- 
less, a remarkable agreement throughout both. 
They are alike outward and showy structures — 
magnificent to the view, and elaborately fur- 

* End of Controversy, Letter L., p. 323. 



132 OF THE MINISTRY. 

nished with all the appliances to seduce and 
captivate the natural affections of men. Elo- 
quence attracts the intellect, music the feelings, 
and architecture, with the fine arts in her train, 
ministers to the eye in the matchless profusion 
of medieval monuments of genius. Yet I am 
unable to choose between them ; for if I take 
the "exterior marks," I fear the principle will 
conduct me to the first, however repugnant may 
be this complete surrender of my freedom to 
think for myself, into the hands of a man as 
like in all particulars as may be, and no doubt 
as frail. In either case, if I may judge by the 
mass of testimony exhibited against each other, 
the marks of sanctity are by no means apparent. 
They both refer me to the Holy Scriptures in 
proof of their respective credentials. The first, 
in a qualified manner, as subordinate to the 
interpretation he and his colleagues may pro- 
nounce ; the tradition which, he tells me, has 
been handed down from their predecessors, 
however this may conflict with the text. The 
other informs me that they contain the whole 
counsel of God — the only revelation he ever 



OF THE MINISTRY. 133 

made to man — and are the highest rule of 
faith and practice. With this reference, I exa- 
mine for myself; and readily discover that if 
obedience to the positive injunctions of him to 
whom every portion points as the perfect 
standard, is to constitute the criterion of their 
claim to represent him, there is scarcely a mark 
of identity. His advent was ushered in with 
the anthem of " Peace on earth, and good will 
to men." He declared his kingdom not of this 
world. He testified continually against forms, 
and rituals, and ceremonies, and inveighed most 
severely against the hypocritical claimants to an 
outward hierarchy, and a spiritual control over 
men. " How can ye," said he to these, "escape 
the damnation of hell?"* and told them "Had 
ye believed Moses" (that is, the outward record), 
" ye would have believed me ; for he wrote of 
me."f He ever preached perfect righteousness, 
both by precept and example, without any com- 
promise with opinion or expediency; and having 
left no "mark" whatever which the ingenuity 

* Matt, xxiii. 33. f John v - ^6. 

12 



134 OF THE MINISTRY. 

of men could torture into a warrant for spiritual 
dominion over their fellows, he promised to be 
with his disciples to the end of the world — to 
send them his Holy Spirit, which would lead 
and guide them into all truth. 

How, then, am I to treat the claims of those 
who, at the present day, attempt to impose on 
me their commandments as the doctrines of 
Christ ? Who assure me that he is not with the 
two or three gathered together in his name? 
That he does not dwell in spirit with those who 
look for him, as their leader and their guide? 
That such ideas are mere chimeras of a heated 
brain ? That his express commands cannot be 
meant as rules of conduct ? That doctrines and 
creeds, which have not a shadow of foundation 
in what he said or did, are the great essentials 
of my everlasting salvation ? 

To reconcile the monstrous perversions which 
these men have systematized, and defend as 
Christian Theology, with the ascription of 
honesty and uprightness to them, would be im- 
possible, did I not remember that "they were 
educated in them — that they live by them — that 



OF THE MINISTRY. 135 

a doubt or a suggestion as to their truth, would 
be at the peril of their worldly standing and 
their pecuniary incomes. 

It is, alas ! but too true, and too sad a proof 
of the utter depravity of men, that the teachers 
of religion are placed, by education and posi- 
tion, precisely on a par with the merchant, the 
physician, and the advocate at law. They select 
the profession as a means of support, and are 
apprenticed to learn it. It is not pretended that 
they seek the truth. Whatever may be the 
aspirations or the abilities of a candidate for 
what is called holy orders, the bed of Procrustes, 
on which he is laid, lops him or stretches him to 
the one standard of his sect. Sent forth from 
his theological college by human ordination, to 
teach a particular community the stereotyped 
opinions which they alone will hear, the path 
of ambition is opened before him, as the blind, 
and deaf, and partly dumb mercenary of his em- 
ployers. The instant he sees, the moment he 
hears, the day that he speaks, as a free and 
honest man, with other eyes, or ears, or tongue, 
that path is closed. The fruits of his studies 



136 OF THE MINISTRY. 

are lost — his subsistence may utterly fail — for 
his trade is spoiled. 

I am desirous to avoid, if possible, the use of 
language that may wound the feelings of any; 
but I cannot stifle, on a subject of such para- 
mount importance to all men, the expression of 
plain, but necessary truths. For of the evils 
which afflict society, none, in my opinion, is 
comparable to that under consideration, for the 
certainty, and the magnitude, and the perma- 
nence of its results. To this organization of 
intellect into a class or order of men, as a sepa- 
rate profession by which to live and rise in the 
world, must mainly be attributed the practically 
anti-christian state of communities and nations. 
They stand a direct and formidable barrier in 
the way of the sincere seeker after truth. But 
for their rivalry and contention, I should have 
little hope, even in this land, for freedom of 
conscience. A general union of the clergy upon 
any great measure, though that of national edu- 
cation, would, I fear, be ominous for our liberty, 
virtue, and independence. Nevertheless, I have 
no controversy with them as men and neighbors. 



OF THE MINISTRY. 137 

111 my personal acquaintance, I can take no 
ground for distinguishing them, in any particu- 
lar, from the mass of my fellow-citizens. They 
are educated in error, and become the active 
instruments of a false system, to spread and 
perpetuate it. They profess honesty of purpose 
— I may not gainsay it, for I cannot search the 
heart. That Being to whom they are individu- 
ally accountable, whose mercy covers his judg- 
ment-seat to an hair's breadth, has reserved to 
himself this awful prerogative. But I must say, 
in view of the clear precepts and the promises 
of the Master, which they theoretically recog- 
nize, but practically ignore, "How can ye escape 
condemnation ?" 

They will object, perhaps, to the command 
" Freely ye have received, freely give," that they 
have not received freely. This is most true. 
They have paid for their theological education, 
and must sell their theological services. They 
consider the laborer worthy of his hire — this 
also is reasonable. As they are employed and 
paid to preach and pray, sprinkle and commu- 
nicate, marry and bury, and generally perform 
12* 



138 OF THE MINISTRY. 

ecclesiastical services within certain geographical 
limits, it is proper that the contract be fulfilled 
on both sides. But let them not assume to be 
pastors over the sheep of Christ — for these know 
his voice, and the voice of a stranger they will 
not follow.* Let them, as the hireling, and not 
the shepherd, keep within their jurisdiction, and 
smooth the path of the worldling as well as they 
may. Let them profess, truly, to be " blind 
leaders of the blind," f and they will not be 
disturbed. When, however, they claim to lord 
it over God's heritage, with such challenges as 
are put forth in the works I have before me, I 
feel more than a warrant to expose their preten- 
sions, and hold them up as the veriest counter- 
feits, in every particular, that the world has ever 
beheld. 

That the leaders of the people cause them to 
err — that the priests bear rule by their means, 
because the people love to have it so — is the 
reason why Christendom has made little or no 
progress in learning the very rudiments of the 

* John x. 5. f Matt. xv. 14. 



OF THE MINISTRY. 139 

gospel of Christ. In nothing is man more 
inconsistent, than in seeking counsel of a class 
whose education and interest both prompt them 
to turn him from the great teacher, the " more 
sure word of prophecy;" by taking heed to 
which as unto a light that shineth in a dark 
place, the day will dawn, and the day star, 
Christ, the sun of the spiritual firmament, arise 
in his heart. Human wisdom excludes the tes- 
timony of an interested witness, upon the 
smallest question of property ; but blindly sur- 
renders the salvation of the immortal soul to an 
an order of men who have every motive that 
worldly interest can create, to bind around it 
the chains of spiritual darkness, and lull its 
apprehensions into a fatal repose. How prolific 
such a course, of corresponding ignorance, wick- 
edness, and misery, let the present and past 
condition of the race answer. 

Is it necessary to add to what has already 
been said on the subject, that Jesus Christ, the 
anointed Saviour, always commissions his minis- 
ters with the burden of the word of the Lord ? 
That he is still with them wherever they are 



140 OF THE MINISTRY. 

sent, " confirming that word with signs follow- 
ing ?" * That it does not return unto him void, 
but it accomplishes that which he pleases, and 
prospers in the thing whereto he sends it?f 
The condition of such a minister, to be blind 
and deaf as to all outward knowledge, in the 
discharge of his duty, is ever the same — " Who 
is blind, but my servant ? or deaf as my mes- 
senger that I sent ? who is blind as he that is 
perfect, and blind as the Lord's servant? Seeing 
many things, but thou observest not : opening 
the ears, but he heareth not." J His minister 
ever tarries at Jerusalem, the soul's quiet habi- 
tation, until endued with power from on high, 
and in this power declares the whole counsel of 
God, irrespective of the fear or the favor of 
men. As no other preparation than that of 
the heart is required, his or her hands (for all 
are one in Christ) are employed about the lawful 
pursuits of life, to provide for its necessary sus- 
tenance and comfort ; and when from home on 

* Mark xvi. 20. f Isaiah lv. 11. 

J Ibid, xlii. 19, 20. 



OF THE MINISTRY. 141 

the service of the Master, such entertainment as 
those who are worthy may offer in the feeling 
of hospitality, suffices. He can covet no man's 
silver or gold, if he would keep his eye single to 
the business about which he is sent. Such are 
the pastors whom Christ commissions to feed his 
sheep and lambs. They neither can, nor dare 
they, of themselves, do anything. They have 
no nearer access to the Father of mercies than 
any of their fellows; but having become con- 
verted, regenerate — having tasted the good 
word of God, and the powers of the world to 
come — in humility and as submissive instru- 
ments only — they are qualified to speak to 
others of that which was from the beginning, 
which they have heard, which they have seen 
with their eyes, which they have looked upon, 
and their hands have handled, of the Word of 
Life.* It matters not as to the fashion of their 
speech — Christ, their Master, is with them, in 
the midst of his gathered church ; and as face 

* 1 John i. 1. 



142 OF THE MINISTRY. 

answereth face in a glass, so the word spoken 
will meet the witness in the hearts of the 
hearers; or, what is far better, in that awful 
reverent waiting frame of mind, the Saviour 
himself will break the spiritual bread, and bap- 
tize the soul into a sense and feeling of his own 
ineffable glory. 



ABROGATION OF THE LAW. 143 



CHAPTER IX. 

ABROGATION OF THE LAW. 

The continual tendency of the mind of man 
towards a state of worldliness and sensuality, 
has been, in the foregoing pages, illustrated from 
the scriptural writers of his history. Fallen, by 
transgressing the divine law, from that original 
condition of purity in which he was created, 
and dead to the controlling Power that kept his 
lower nature in absolute subjection, we have 
traced the depth of his wretchedness, and the 
means appointed for his redemption from sin. 
The institution has been set forth, of that series 
of outward types which represent his progress 
under tutors and governors, from his state of 
nature to a state of grace — from that of an alien 
and almost an enemy, to his adoption as a son 
of God — from the small glimmering of spiritual 
light, in which the Law of outward command- 



144 ABROGATION OF THE LAW. 

ments is given, to lead him from the bondage 
of this world, into the glorious liberty of the 
children of God. We behold him throughout, 
rebellious, stiff-necked, and ever prone to choose 
darkness rather than light — to rest in delusions 
and carnal ease, rather than take up the cross 
of Christ, and follow him in the regeneration. 

It would be a contrast, indeed, if the advent 
of the only begotten Son of God, the end and 
crown of the series, by whom life and immor- 
tality were brought to light, had changed his 
invariable tendency to evil. But it did not. 
"With even more stupendous miracles than 
heralded the mission of Moses, as an appeal to 
their senses— with infinitely greater authority, 
in the irresistible conviction that accompanied 
his teaching — with the declaration from their 
own Scriptures, their idolized rule of faith, that 
he was the expected Messiah, he was rejected 
and put to death. Not only did he fail to receive 
the welcome from his own, to whom he was 
especially sent, but he was deserted, in the hour 
of extremity, by the few disciples who had 
received, and forsaken all to follow him. "I 



ABROGATION OF THE LAW. 145 

will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the 
flock shall be scattered abroad," was fully veri- 
fied in his case ; he " trod the wine-press alone, 
and of the people there was none with him." 

In the counsels of Infinite Wisdom, it was 
expedient that he should die for the people, and 
that the whole nation perish not.* He according- 
ly suffered, the innocent for the guilty, " the just 
for the unjust, that he might bring them to 
God."f There is no higher evidence furnished 
to man of God's goodness and love, than this. 
There is no more perfect demonstration of the 
oneness of God in will and benevolence with 
his church, than this proof. I have stated 
before, that he follows the rebellious prodigal as 
the fondest parent does his erring child, to bring 
him back, if possible, to virtue and peace. He 
sends his messengers — his regenerate and puri- 
fied children — to speak the word of reproof, of 
persuasion, or of encouragement; and after 
that, to suffer with them or for them. If reco- 
vered, " there is more joy in heaven over one 

* John xi. 50, 51. f 1 Pet. iii. 18. 

13 



146 ABROGATION OF THE LAW. 

sinner that repenteth, than over ninety and nine 
just persons which need no repentance/'* Of 
such value is the salvation of a single soul in the 
sight of God and his redeemed. It was now, 
however, his only begotten Son who was sent — 
one who never sinned — to speak, as never man 
spake, the words of perfect wisdom and good- 
ness. He declared to Pilate, " To this end was 
I born, and for this cause came I into the 
world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. 
Every one that is of the truth, heareth my 
voice." f And stated, in his sublime prayer — 
"I have glorified thee on earth: I have finished 
the work which thou gavest me to do." J This 
was in allusion to his ministry. The remainder, 
which might not properly be called work, being 
but passive suffering, his last exclamation pro- 
claimed finished with his mortal life.§ 

It is a commonly received opinion that the 
death of Jesus Christ formed a part, and the 
most prominent part, of God's plan for man's 
redemption from sin. I must confess that I 

* Luke xv. 7. f John xviii. 37. 

J Ibid, xvii. 4. § Ibid, xix. 30. 



ABROGATION OF THE LAW. 147 

have not been able to arrive at such a conclu- 
sion. In giving my reasons, I hope to treat the 
subject in that reverent manner which will not, 
or should not, offend the feelings of any ; and, 
be it remembered, I go to the very highest out- 
ward authority in search of truth. If his testi- 
mony is not clear, I illustrate it only by what 
can be fairly drawn from the records sanctioned 
and confirmed by him. In view of the positive 
declarations above referred to, perfectly harmo- 
nizing with all he said and did as to the cha- 
racter and extent of his mission, we overstrain 
legitimate deductions by framing schemes • and 
systems that hinge on what he left unsaid. He, 
surely, was the best exponent of his own doc- 
trine ; and unless some evidence can be furnished 
nearer the fountain-head, for the all-important 
part attributed to the tragedy upon Mount Cal- 
vary, I must class it among the mere inventions 
of human wisdom and priestly craft. 

It is true that this event was foreshadowed by 
prophecy — that he himself conversed about his 
death, and explained its necessity as it actually 
occurred — that Moses and Elias, who appeared 



148 ABROGATION OF THE LAW. 

in glory, "spake of his decease which he should 
accomplish at Jerusalem" — yet, nevertheless, 
among the many unauthorized doctrines based 
upon his sayings and doings, I consider this as 
having the least foundation. 

The object to be attained, in the counsels of 
Infinite "Wisdom, is the restoration of man to 
that condition whence he fell, viz. : the state in 
which, his will being slain, he becomes obedient 
to the righteous government of God in his soul. 
God, himself, is unchangeable — the same to-day, 
yesterday, and forever. He is represented as 
changeable, because he follows a rebellious crea- 
ture throughout the subtleties of his serpentine 
reasonings, and the sinuosities of his devious 
course. His dispensations and his plans are 
changing, simply because they are adapted to 
the constant and final end in view. They are 
now by judgments upon individuals or nations 
— again by warnings immediately and instru- 
mentally — at other periods, by the alternative 
of woes or repentance — sometimes, by the 
pathetic remonstrances of his militant church, 
and its baptism into suffering and death for the 



ABROGATION OF THE LAW. 149 

sake of the dying, and even the spiritually dead 
— and not seldom, by the awful sentence of 
destruction. 

In consequence of this, no prophecy, having 
reference to the will of man for its accomplish- 
ment, can be positive. It must always be con- 
ditional — for, were it made otherwise, man's 
free agency would be destroyed. I may cite, 
almost indefinitely, passages of Scripture for 
proof of this. One of the most remarkable 
instances is made the theme of the book of 
Jonah. This prophet, we are told, was com- 
manded to go to Nineveh, and cry against it for 
its wickedness. He tried to escape from the 
duty, but was compelled, by suffering, to sub- 
mit. He was bidden a second time, and accord- 
ingly went. Through him, the prophecy of God 
was positive — "Yet forty days, and Nineveh 
shall be overthrown." The object was accom- 
plished — they repented, from the greatest to the 
least, in sackcloth and ashes. " And God saw 
their works, that they turned from their evil 
way : and God repented of the evil that he had 
13* 



150 ABROGATION OF THE LAW. 

said that he would do unto them : and he did it 
not."* 

When he sent his only begotten Son to the 
lost sheep of the house of Israel, it was for the 
same end. But a greater than Jonah failed to 
accomplish the object of his ministry — "He 
came unto his own, and his own received him 
not."f Had they received him — had they 
repented, as the Ninevites did at the preaching 
of Jonah — can we suppose they would have put 
him to death ? And if they had not taken his 
life, what becomes of the fore-ordination, and 
the contract between the " first and second per- 
sons of the Trinity,' \ as alleged to have been 
made in reference to the sacrifice of Christ ? 

But it is supposed, from the reasoning of Paul 
in several of his Epistles, especially that to the 
Hebrews, of which he is generally reputed the 
author, that the death of Christ by violence was 
necessary, in order to end the Law. It is true that 
the apostle, particularly in addressing those most 
familiar with it, draws his analogies from the 

* Jonah iii. 10. f John i. 11. 



ABROGATION OF THE LAW. 151 

sacrifices under that Law, to show its termina- 
tion in the one offering, by which "he hath 
perfected forever them that are sanctified. " * It 
was the advent and preaching of Christ, how- 
ever, that annulled the Law of Moses, and that 
brought life and immortality to light in the 
gospel. He, himself, was under the Law, and 
submitted to its rituals ; but, in his sermon on 
the mount, he abolished the commandments of 
the Law given because of the hardness of their 
hearts, and preached the gospel as it has been 
preached neither before nor since. Its pure and 
perfect doctrines were promulgated, and a 
standard of holiness raised before men, far 
beyond what they then or since have been able 
to receive. 

His preaching and his display of miraculous 
power, in fact, but hardened them the more. 
His testimony convicted, but did not, because it 
could not, convert them. Their state rendered 
that impossible. I say this, in the full belief 
that all things are possible with God ; but when 

* Heb. x. 14, 



152 ABROGATION OF THE LAW. 

he made man a free agent, lie gave something 
to a being formed in his own likeness, and in 
the gift the power to will freely was forever 
bestowed. Had it been possible to reach their 
hardened hearts, surely he wherein dwelt the 
fullness of the Godhead, would not have wept 
over Jerusalem because her day of visitation 
had passed by. 

The inshining of God's light upon the soul, 
has been likened to the action of the sun on 
matter, which produces different effects accord- 
ing to the recipient ; thus, it softens wax, but 
hardens clay. The comparison, in this respect, 
is perfectly applicable. He said to Moses, when 
commissioned to show those wonders before 
Pharaoh which he put into his hand — "I will 
harden his heart, that he shall not let the people 
go."* And the result proved it with every suc- 
cessive miracle, until the destruction of all the 
first-born of Egypt accomplished his object. 
Paul's reasoning, when commenting on this in 
his epistle to the Romans, is hard to be under- 

* Exod. iv. 21. 



ABROGATION OF THE LAW. 153 

stood, and has been wrested to establish, the 
absurd doctrine of predestination — a doctrine 
which can never be reconciled with the position 
of man, or the attributes of God. I do not 
perceive, however, that his mode of illustrating 
this subject, defective and ambiguous as it 
appears, has an application, in any way, to the 
dealings of God with the soul of man. The 
case he instances just before introducing this — 
" As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau 
have I hated,"* manifestly proves that the 
power of the potter over the clay, of the same 
lump to make one vessel unto honor, and ano- 
ther unto dishonor, has reference to the indivi- 
duals as types under the Law. For the ways 
of God are equal — his grace has ever been dis- 
pensed to all,f and not a part of the human 
family. It must have been, therefore, to Esau, 
as well as Jacob. But as types, representing, the 
elder, his natural birth in sin, and the younger, 
man's spiritual birth in the regeneration, Esau 
was, figuratively, hated, and Jacob loved. 

* Romans ix. 13. f Titus ii. 11. 



154 ABROGATION OF THE LAW. 

That Jesus Christ died for the sins of all 
mankind, is abundantly evident from many 
Scripture passages. I have shown the import 
of the term* as applied to the state of those not 
actual offenders. Matthew explains it in like 
manner, when recounting that Jesus cast out 
the spirits with his word, and healed all that 
were sick: "That it might be fulfilled which 
was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, Him- 
self took our infirmities, and bare our sick- 
nesses,"f or sins. Truly, "his own self bare 
our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, 
being dead to sins, should live unto righteous- 
ness: by whose stripes ye were healed." J But 
the sins and the atonements under the Law, 
were of an outward nature ; and, saith the 
apostle, " it is not possible that the blood of 
bulls and goats should take away sins,"§ that is, 
against God. In what follows this last quota- 
tion, we have the assurance that sacrifices and 
offerings for sin, by the Law, were not pleasing 
to God — that Christ came to do his will, and 



* Ante, p. 32. f Matt. viii. 17. 

$ 1 Pet. ii, 24, J Heb. x. 4. 



ABROGATION OF THE LAW. 155 

took away the first, that he might establish the 
second covenant. "By the which will we are 
sanctified, through the offering of the body of 
Jesus Christ, once for all." * It is, therefore, in 
doing the will of God that we are sanctified or 
made holy, through the one offering which 
ended all others, and was their substitute. "We 
" received the atonement," or, in other words, 
were reconciled by it; and " being reconciled, 
we shall be saved by his life." f But surely the 
reconciliation is in consequence of a change on 
the part of rebellious man. 

The surrender of his life, therefore, to the 
Jews, in obedience to the will of God, which by 
their rejection was made necessary in order to 
maintain his testimony, must be considered, 
first — the one outward offering that ended all 
others forever; and secondly — in a far more im- 
portant point of view, as the purchase of his 
church. J He was alone on the cross, despised 
and rejected of men, and, from his own testi- 
mony, forsaken of God. Truly it might be 

* Heb. x. 10. f Rom. v. 10, 11. 

t Acts xx. 28. 



156 ABROGATION OF THE LAW. 

said, "he suffered for sins, the just for the un- 
just, that he might bring us to God." * It was 
an offering abundantly sanctified to man, for it 
formed the seed of the church ; and acceptable 
to God, being in accordance with his will, and 
the manifestation of his infinite love. 

The texts wherein he is represented as a pro- 
pitiation, must, I conceive, be greatly wrested, 
to apply them as the Roman Catholic writers, 
and all claiming under their authority, have 
done. John says, in his first general epistle — 
"My little children, these things write I unto 
you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we 
have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ 
the righteous: And he is the propitiation for 
our sins ; and not for ours only, but also for the 
sins of the whole world." f And Paul also, in 
writing to the Romans — "Therefore, by the 
deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified 
in his sight ; for by the law is the knowledge of 
sin. But now the righteousness of God without 
the law is manifested, being witnessed by the 

* 1 Pet. iii. 18. f 1 John ii. 1, 2. 



ABROGATION OF THE LAW. 157 

law and the prophets : Even the righteousness 
of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ, unto 
all and upon all them that believe : for there is 
no difference: For all have sinned, and come 
short of the glory of God ; Being justified freely 
by his grace, through the redemption that is in 
Christ Jesus : whom God hath set forth to be 
a propitiation through faith in his blood, to 
declare his righteousness for the remission of 
sins that are past, through the forbearance of 
God. To declare, I say, at this time his right- 
eousness: that he might be just, and the justifier 
of him which believeth in Jesus.' ' * 

The substance of the above is, that Jesus 
Christ, our advocate with the Father, the pro- 
pitiation for our sins, is, through faith in his 
blood, set forth to declare his righteousness for 
the remission of past sins. All the terms are 
applied spiritually. The apostles are illustrating 
the great fact that redemption from original sin, 
the bondage of the natural condition, is pur- 
chased or acquired when the soul reaches the 
state of regeneration — when old things under 

* Kom. iii. 20-26. 
14 



158 ABROGATION OF THE LAW. 

the law of outward commandments are done 
away — when the vail (that conceals the inward 
and true teacher) beneath which it has been in. 
darkness, subject to forms, ceremonies, opinions, 
and speculations, is rent, and all things made 
new in the heavenly man Christ Jesus — but 
through faith in his blood — words which I shall 
dwell upon hereafter. 

The culmination and close of that series of 
types, given by the Almighty under the Jewish 
Theocracy (in which term I include God's 
government, through various forms, until the 
abolition of the Law), was in the person of Jesus 
Christ of Nazareth. He it was of whom the 
Lord spake by Moses — "I will raise them up a 
Prophet from among their brethren, like unto 
thee, and will put my words in his mouth: 
and he shall speak unto them all that I shall 
command him."* He was the outward mani- 
festation of God in the fulness — the perfect out- 
ward rule and exemplar of men. It is important 
that we should keep this fact constantly in view, 
for religious theories and institutions are very 
* Deut. xviii. 18, Acts iii. 22. 



ABROGATION OF THE LAW. 159 

far from a practical recognition of it. But, as 
there is a dispensation higher than the outward 
Law written on tables of stone, to which it 
pointed and led, so there is a guide greater than 
Jesus Christ of Nazareth, of which he was but 
the type or outward representative. His second 
appearance in the soul as the Comforter, the 
Holy Spirit, to lead and guide into all truth, 
and ever present as its Saviour, is the blessed 
reality of God's whole plan for man's redemp- 
tion. And, abundantly as this second appearance 
was manifested immediately after his crucifixion, 
it has been no less within the reach of mankind 
in every age of the world. But it does not fol- 
low that because he terminated the outward 
dispensation to a particular people, and visibly, 
as it were, introduced that of the Gospel, the 
higher and the perfect covenant, we are to seek 
for rules, precedents, and authority, from his 
instruments. On the contrary, by the whole 
series of types, man was taught to look directly 
to the source of all knowledge and power — to 
leave his dependence on his fellow for aid and 
direction, and come to that infallible Teacher^ 



160 ABROGATION OF THE LAW. 

tlie "Word which, in the beginning, was his life 
and light. The Apostle Paul, on his conversion 
— or introduction into the gospel dispensation, 
or regeneration, or baptism with fire and the 
Holy Ghost, or revelation of the Son in him, for 
they are all convertible terms — went not to the 
apostles at Jerusalem to learn his duty to God.* 
And he told the Corinthians, Christ " died for 
all, that they which live should not henceforth 
live unto themselves, but unto him which died 
for them, and rose again. "Wherefore, hence- 
forth know we no man after the flesh: yea, 
though we have known Christ after the flesh, 
yet now henceforth know we him no more. 
Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new 
creature: old things are passed away; behold, 
all things are become new."f This must be 
the experience of every one who reaches that 
state of the soul in which, by adoption, he can 
truly call God, Father. 

* Gal. i. 17. * 2 Cor. v. 15-17. 



RELICS OF THE LAW. 161 



CHAPTER X. 

RELICS OF THE LAW. 

I shall proceed with what is called the canon 
of the Scriptures, to show the state of the 
Church on the termination of that outward 
government ordained of the Most High. The 
apostles were called and commissioned to 
preach, while Jesus was yet with them. They 
were witnesses of his miracles, and taught by 
him personally, in a manner which, were it pos- 
sible to learn after the mode contended for by 
the Eoman Catholic hypothesis, might be sup- 
posed adequate to their perfect instruction as 
gospel ministers. Yet, although they returned 
with the testimony that the very devils were 
subject to them through his name,* they were 
but imperfectly qualified for the work ; for he 

* Luke x. 17. 
14* 



162 RELICS OF THE LAW. 

told them, "It is expedient for you that I go 
away : for, if I go not away, the Comforter will 
not come unto you."* They looked to him, 
and depended on him, while he was yet with 
them ; and hence it was expedient for them that 
he should go away. If, therefore, the apostles, 
chosen and educated by the highest outward 
authority ever yet furnished for instruction in 
righteousness, could not be made living ministers 
of the word, without power immediately from 
on high, where stands the claim for teaching 
and ordination, by men confessedly weak, and 
erring, and oftentimes wicked ? 

We have evidence enough from the four 
evangelists, that they were yet but as children 
in the knowledge of spiritual truths. Educated 
under the rituals and ceremonies of the Law, 
they partook largely of the general belief that 
the kingdom of the Messiah was to be set up on 
earth, with temporal authority. Even after the 
Holy Ghost had descended upon them, they 
divested themselves of Jewish superstitions and 

* John xvi. 7. 



RELICS OF THE LAW. 163 

prejudices but slowly and partially. Before the 
day of Pentecost, they selected a successor to 
Judas by lot; and after that wonderful outpour- 
ing of the spirit, the customs and tenets of the 
synagogue clung to their ministry, and clouded 
their doctrines. Is it, therefore, wonderful that 
they could not bear the many things Christ had 
to say unto them* while in the flesh, seeing they 
made such tardy progress in learning, even 
when the instruments of greater works than he 
himself did?f 

"Were the theory of an outward visible church, 
instituted by Christ, correct, we should expect 
to find perfection in example, and infallibility in 
doctrine, near the fountain whence it sprang. 
But no such dogma is to be met with among 
the primitive Christians. Their earliest records 
are contained in the New Testament, and this 
affords not the slightest warrant for its assump- 
tion. If the practices of the apostles are to be 
received as divine institutions, because they were 
practised by them, then the rule must sanction 



* John xvi. 12. f Ibid, xiv. 12. 



164 RELICS OF THE LAW. 

and enforce the adoption of all In such case, 
customs of Jewish, and even of heathen origin, 
will be re-engrafted upon modern Christianity. 
Paul shaved his head at Cenchrea because of a 
vow,* and circumcised a Greek, f albeit the 
latter rite had been pronounced unnecessary by 
the apostles and elders. The Roman Catholic 
disputant gets over the difficulty by that conve- 
nient aid, the traditions of the church, for which 
he assuredly has some warrant in the instructions 
given to Timothy.J But how the Episcopal 
writer, who pronounces the canon of Scripture 
the Word of God, and the only rule of faith and 
practice, can extract what is infallible and obli- 
gatory, from that of the same origin which is 
not, constitutes a problem not so easily solved. 

I aver, then, that the general tendency of 
mankind to leave the spirit for the letter — the 
inward for the outward — the substance for the 
shadow — found no exception in the case of the 
apostles, on the promulgation of Christianity; 
although it is freely acknowledged that they 

* Acts xviii. 18. f Ibid, xvi. 3. 

t 2 Tim. ii. 2. 



RELICS OF THE LAW. 165 

themselves came to see the character of those 
rites and ceremonies, then continued in conde- 
scension to the weakness of their Jewish con- 
verts. Happily for the great doctrine which 
Jesus Christ preached to them, and the revela- 
tion of the Holy Ghost abundantly confirmed 
with overwhelming conviction, their testimony 
on the subject is clear and conclusive. Their 
epistles, generally, are addressed to the particu- 
lar states and conditions of the churches, or 
congregations of the believers established in 
different places. The modes of reasoning, and 
the illustrations used, are adapted to the end 
separately in view. Thus, in writing to the 
Gentile converts at Rome, Paul shows that they 
too had a law to themselves, equivalent to the 
written law of the Jews, and that obedience to 
what they knew placed them, before God, upon 
equal ground with the circumcision. While, in 
the epistle to the Hebrews, who had the outward 
law of Moses, the analogies are nearly all drawn 
from the types with which they were familiar 
under that law. He addresses the faithful breth- 
ren at Colosse a letter of encouragement, 



166 RELICS OF THE LAW. 

while the backsliding Galatians receive a sharp 
reproof for their reception of another gospel 
than the grace of Christ, by which they had 
been turned again to the beggarly elements. 
Having begun in the Spirit, they had sought to 
be made perfect by the flesh. His letters to 
Timothy, Titus, and Philemon, are more special 
and private, but abounding with reiterations of 
his great doctrine, amid the advice, direction, 
and entreaty called for by the occasion and the 
circumstances. 

It is, I think, no difficult task to satisfy an 
impartial inquirer, from these epistles, and the 
other books of the New Testament, that the 
outward church, as a segregate body of indivi- 
duals, recognizable like corporations, societies, 
and governments of men, never had an exist- 
ence. It has been shown, from the highest 
authority, what constitutes the visible church of 
Christ. Let the "marks of the Lord Jesus" be 
manifested by his patience, meekness, humility, 
purity, and power from on high, and all whose 
eyes are sufficiently anointed with the eye-salve 
of the kingdom to discern spiritual things, will 



RELICS OF THE LAW. 167 

salute it in gospel fellowship. But from the 
very beginning, this church has been rarely met 
with out of the wilderness — like its holy head, 
it has ever been despised and rejected of men — 
like him, it is not of this world. If it were, the 
world would love its own. Who will dare to 
point out that collection of men whose thoughts 
and actions are altogether from God, and not of 
themselves? Until this be done, I apprehend 
that the very foundation is wanting for the claim 
of a specific body of men, as such, to holiness 
and infallibility of doctrine. Hence, the church 
is manifested by its power. As the salt of the 
earth, which has not lost its savor. As the light 
of the world, through which Christ the Sun of 
righteousness shines visibly, to illuminate and 
to vivify what is sunk in darkness, and lost in 
death. 

But the marks of the outward churches, 
claiming by succession from the apostles, or by 
imitation of their practices and forms, are of a 
very different character. These are sufficiently 
visible and cognizant to men. To become a 
member of such is purely a matter of will, pro- 



168 KELICS OF THE LAW. 

vided there be no great disqualification by noto- 
riously bad conduct. Such, a church may be 
composed, in part or in whole, of unregenerate 
men, who, by Christ's express declaration, can- 
not see, much less enter, the kingdom of God.* 
To call such the one holy church, is to bring 
righteousness into fellowship with unrighteous- 
ness — light into communion with darkness — 
Christ into concord with Belial.f But I have 
no intention to cast a stigma upon any denomi- 
nation of professing Christians ; I merely wish 
to apply their principles, and exhibit these in 
their ultimate development. I believe there are 
members of the true mystical church to be 
gathered out of all ; but so far from conceding 
their claim to be, corporately or collectively, 
even a part of the Christian church, I consider 
them the true congeners of the synagogue — 
identical in institution, and cognate in govern- 
ment. 

It is not necessary to trace the declension of 
what is in history commonly called the church, 

* John iii. 3-5. f 2 Cor. vi. 14, 15. 



RELICS OF THE LAW. 169 

nor to exhibit the partial reformations it has 
undergone from time to time. Such a course 
would be foreign to my purpose. I am endea- 
voring to give a reason of the hope that is in 
me, as a reply to the assumptions made by the 
writers whose works are under consideration. 
They respectively claim to set forth the Church 
of Christ. If I cannot show that neither of 
them has any foundation on which to stand as 
such, I must, by my principles, determine 
between the two, and secure, as far as I may, 
my soul's salvation in her arms. But I have 
already exhibited the character and the marks 
which the spouse of Christ ever bears, from his 
own testimony, confirmed by that of his imme- 
diate apostles. I deem it of no consequence to 
descend farther in the history than this, for if I 
can, as I think I shall, show that all the rites 
and ceremonies and observances now in use, 
are continuations of the outward law abrogated 
by Christ, and discouraged, though allowed by 
his apostles, I shall need but little more to carry 
out my design. 
15 



170 RELICS OE THE LAW. 

We proceed, therefore, to the examination of 
what are called by Dr. Milner the means of 
sanctity. The principal and most efficacious of 
these, according to the Roman Catholic hypo- 
thesis, are the seven sacraments, as they are 
termed, of Baptism, Confirmation, The Lord's 
Supper, Penance, Extreme Unction, Orders, 
and Matrimony. It would be a useless waste of 
labor to follow up all the inventions which 
Popes and Councils, Doctors and Priests, Con- 
vocations and Synods, have from time to time 
engrafted on the various forms of religious pro- 
fession. Their name is Legion, and their 
parentage no higher than those above enume- 
rated. Nor do I purpose to go farther into 
these than may seem absolutely necessary to 
show, beyond all doubt, their character as 
excrescences borrowed from Jewish, and in some 
instances, heathen superstitions. In the outward 
code dispensed by the Most High, were, through 
the evil tendencies of the human heart, incor- 
porated a vast number of glosses and traditions, 
by which, as our Saviour testified, it was made 



RELICS OF THE LAW. 171 

of none effect. It would be, indeed, a remark- 
able circumstance, if the growth of centuries 
which resulted in so corrupt a hierarchy as that 
of Rome, should not have produced a like mass, 
of heterogeneous mixture, to ensnare the credu- 
lity and enslave the ignorance of mankind. 



172 RELICS OF THE LAW. 



CHAPTER XL 

RELICS OF THE LAW — (CONTINUED). 

OP BAPTISM. 

The term Baptism is, in the records of the 
New Testament, so continually used by Christ 
and his apostles, that if any word should have a 
settled meaning, we might suppose it to be this. 
On the contrary, I maintain that none of equal 
frequency has been less understood in its ori- 
ginal import. When he used it in the quota- 
tion before introduced,* " Go ye, therefore, and 
teach all nations, baptizing them in the name 
of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy 
Ghost,' ' it was prefaced by his information, as a 
thing necessary to be known in connection with 
the command — "All power is given unto me in 
heaven and in earth," and followed by the 

* Ante, p. 112. 



KELICS OF THE LAW. 173 

assurance, "Lo, I am with you alway, even 
unto the end of the world." * 

Surely any unprejudiced person, in reading a 
passage like this, would couple both the power 
in the antecedent, and the promise in the subse- 
quent verse, with the duty to be performed. If, 
then, Christ, having all power in heaven and in 
earth, and promising to be ever present with 
that power, commanded as his last solemn in- 
junction to teach all nations, baptizing them, 
must he not attach an awful significance to a 
word introduced in such a connection, and under 
such circumstances ? 

If we pass on to the next Evangelist, its use 
is no less portentous — "And he said unto them, 
Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel 
to every creature. He that believeth, and is 
baptized, shall be saved ; but he that believeth 
not, shall be damned." f Here, belief and bap- 
tism are to be followed by salvation ; and from 
the very absence of the latter in the remainder 
of the sentence, we must infer a close and neces- 

* Matt, xxviii. 18-20. f Mark xvi. 15, 16. 

15* 



174 KELICS OF THE LAW. 

sary connection between them, as also is evident 
from what Paul told the Ephesians, " There is 
one Lord, one faith, one baptism."* Yet, the 
received doctrine of both the churches defended 
in the works under consideration, is, that Christ 
enjoined them to sprinkle a few drops of water 
in the face while pronouncing certain words. 

But the absurdity of their practical interpre- 
tation does not stop here. The command to 
teach all nations, baptizing them, is fulfilled by 
sprinkling infants who cannot be taught. Thus, 
that which should accompany and effectuate the 
teaching, is made, by their inconsistent theory, 
the principal, and in the case of those who never 
reach an age to receive teaching, the only means 
of sanctity. Can there be an instance furnished 
of a more flagrant perversion of language to 
mean what it does not, than this Roman 
Catholic and Protestant Episcopal doctrine of 
baptism ? 

I shall endeavor to show, in a concise manner, 
the introduction and the mixed import of the 

* Eph. iv. 5. 



RELICS OF THE LAW. 175 

word, as used throughout the New Testament. 
It is scarcely necessary to remind the well- 
informed reader, that baptism (i 0., dipping or 
immersing) with water, was and is a practice 
universal in the warm climates of Asia, both as 
a means of purifying, to cleanse the body, and a 
religious rite, to signify the ablution required 
for the soul. Hence, it was appropriately incor- 
porated among the emblems of sanctification, 
under that series of types and shadows of the 
good things to come. Throughout the com- 
mandments of Moses, washing the body forms 
a conspicuous medium of purification, to cleanse 
from the sins of accident or commission therein 
set forth. We find also a most lively represen- 
tation of the baptism which the soul must 
undergo, in the direction of the prophet Elisha 
to Naaman the leper — " Go and wash in Jordan 
seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to 
thee, and thou shalt be clean."* The river 
Jordan, which had to be passed by Israel as the 
last obstacle to their entering the promised land, 

* 2 Kings v. 10. 



176 KELICS OF THE LAW. 

was that in which. John, the fore-runner of 
Christ, baptized his disciples with water unto 
repentance. Could there be more expressive 
language used to convey an idea, than that of 
immersion in what was figuratively the river of 
judgment, to show the necessity of washing by 
repentance ? That John, in person and minis- 
try, was a type under the Jewish dispensation, 
is generally conceded ; indeed, none professing 
a belief in any system of religion having refer- 
ence for its origin to the gospel narratives, can, 
with the least color of foundation, deny the fact. 
His testimony was — "I indeed baptize you with 
water unto repentance : but he that cometh after 
me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not 
worthy to bear : he shall baptize you with the 
Holy Ghost and with fire." * Now let us ascer- 
tain from him thus heralded— the Prophet to be 
heard in all things, according to Moses — what 
was the position of John. "Among those," 
said he, " that are born of women, there is not 
a greater prophet than John the Baptist; but 

* Matt. iii. 11. 



RELICS OF THE LAW. 177 

lie that is least in the kingdom of God is greater 
than he."* Can this language be applicable to 
John, as a man, whose whole life was one of 
self-denial, and whose death that of a martyr for 
his righteous testimony? Surely not. Our 
Saviour referred to him as one of the types, and 
the last before himself — that baptizer of the 
soul unto repentance, whose washing should 
precede the baptism of the Son of God with the 
Holy Ghost and with fire, whereby all the first 
or chaffy nature being consumed, it is quickened 
and made a new creature in the kingdom of 
God. Hence the least in the kingdom of God, 
or the Gospel dispensation, is greater than the 
greatest under the law. 

The baptism of John was with water — that 
of Christ with the Holy Ghost and fire, as stated 
in the foregoing text. The first was an outward 
act, and a mere type ; the second was a figura- 
tive expression of what Christ, by his inward 
and spiritual appearance, should effect on the 
soul. The baptism with fire never occurred 

* Luke vii. 28. 



178 EELICS OF THE LAW. 

outwardly, and necessarily could not. Nor, by 
the testimony of the evangelist, did that of the 
Holy Ghost until Jesus had ascended and was 
glorified.* 

When he asked the Pharisees, " whether the 
baptism of John was from heaven or of men/' 
he recognized the distinction between that and 
his own. His disciples baptized with John's 
baptism, but he himself did not.f He was 
baptized by John in order to fulfil the righteous- 
ness of the law,{ under which he lived, for he 
came not to destroy, but to fulfil the law and 
the prophets. § The testimony of John con- 
cerning the two baptisms is very clear. "He 
must increase, but I must decrease." || This 
can alone be predicable of the two as repre- 
senting, the one, an outward material figure 
destined to pass away with the end of the law, 
the other that birth of the Spirit, whereby man 
enters the kingdom of God — that child born, 
that son given, on whose shoulder shall forever 



* John vii. 39. f Ibid. iv. 2. $ Matt. iii. 15. 

g Ibid. v. 17. || John iii, 30. 



RELICS OF THE LAW. 179 

rest the government, whose name shall be 
called, Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty 
God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of 
Peace — of the increase of whose government 
and peace there shall be no end.* In the 
spiritual antitype the baptism of repentance 
must also pass away on the introduction of the 
second covenant, the gospel dispensation, wherein 
all things are new, and all forever of God. 

Dr. Milner says, " no authority can be more 
express than that of the Scripture, as to this 
necessity — (i. e. outward baptism.) Except a 
man be born of water and of the spirit, says- 
Christ, he cannot enter into the kingdom of 
God. John iii. 5. Repent, cries St. Peter, 
and be baptized every one of you, in the name 
of Jesus, for the remission of sins. Acts ii. 38. 
Arise, answered Ananias to St. Paul, and be 
baptized, and wash away thy sins. Acts xxii. 
16." f He forgot to add, however, the testi- 
mony of the apostles on the subject, in explana- 

* Isaiah ix. 6. 

* End of Religious Controversy, Letter XX., p. 120. 



180 RELICS OF THE LAW. 

tion of their views. "And as I began to 
speak," says Peter to the apostles and brethren, 
who condemned him for eating with the uncir- 
cumcised, " the Holy Ghost fell on them, as on 
us at the beginning. Then remembered I the 
word of the Lord, how that he said, John indeed 
baptized with water : but ye shall be baptized 
with the Holy Ghost."* Here is a plain expo- 
sition, from one he calls the supreme pastor of 
his church, of the foundation text on which he 
builds it. " Go ye forth and teach, baptizing, 
&c. Peter did teach? and, as he taught, the 
word was confirmed "with signs following" — 
the hearers were baptized with the Holy Ghost. 
Again, he informs us, still more explicitly, what 
saving baptism is not, and what it is. "The 
like figure whereunto, even baptism, doth also 
now save us (not the putting away of the filth 
of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience 
toward God) by the resurrection of Jesus 
Christ."t 
Paul told the Corinthians, in speaking of 

* Acts xi. 15, 16. 1 1 Pet, iii. 21. 



RELICS OF THE LAW. 181 

those whom he had baptized, viz : Crispus, 
Gaius, and the household of Stephanas: "For 
Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the 
gospel/'* Here, outward baptism is spoken 
of. If, then, this great apostle was not sent to 
baptize with the outward baptism, which is the 
baptism of John with water, how can Christ's 
command, to teach all nations, baptizing them 
in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy 
Ghost, be construed to mean that baptism for 
which Paul had no commission ? 

The same apostle declares, " There is one 
Lord, one faith, one baptism, "f None will 
deny that, as he was not a whit " behind the very 
chiefest apostles," his ministry must have been 
instrumental in the saving of souls. If his 
teaching was so, could it have been otherwise 
than by baptizing according to the command 
of Christ? But he declares that he was not 
sent to baptize (outwardly) — and that there is 
one baptism — which, I take it, means but one 
saving baptism. Is not the inference clear then, 

* 1 Cor. 1. 17. t Eph. iv. 5. 

16 



182 KELICS OF THE LAW. 

that this one saving baptism, the baptism of the 
Holy Ghost, was that commanded by Christ — • 
in which whoso believeth (i. e. practically, by 
its regenerating effect upon the heart) — shall be 
saved ?* 

He gives, again, the like definition, in 
writing to bring back the Galatians from their 
retrograde movement towards the beggarly 
elements of the Law. "For as many of you as 
have been baptized into Christ, have put on 
Christ." f And he says to them, "My little 
children, of whom I travail in birth again until 
Christ be formed in you." J 

Now, these phrases, — baptism into Christ — 
putting on Christ — Christ being formed in 
them — are manifestly convertible terms — mean- 
ing one and the same thing. If Paul, therefore, 
travailed, or laboured, by teaching, which his 
epistle proves, to baptize them into Christ, he 
was sent. The one baptism, therefore, is not 
the outward baptism for which he declares he 
was not sent, but the baptism into Christ — into 

* Mark xvi. 16. f Gal. iii. 27. t Ibid. iv. 19. 



RELICS OF THE LAW. 183 

the name (which I have shown above to mean 
the power) of the Father, and of the Son, and 
of the Holy Ghost. 

That the apostles baptized with water, both 
while Christ remained outwardly with them, 
and after the Holy Ghost w T as given, constitutes 
no argument in its favor, when, as I have 
shown, their testimony was eventually raised 
against it. They circumcised, and did other 
things which, by universal consent, are con- 
sidered abolished. It is not from the remnants 
of Judaism still prevalent among them after 
their conversion, that we are to draw our 
warrant for practices, of a character antagonist 
to the pure doctrines of our Lord and Saviour 
Jesus Christ. Still less shall we stand excused 
for descending lower on the page of ecclesias- 
tical history, to bolster up rites and ceremonies 
which find no authority at its fountain-head. 
As I have said, the same rule which would es- 
tablish, as immutable, any one practice because 
of their apparent sanction, would operate to 
bind us in respect to all. And if the interpre- 
tation of what are called the Fathers or Pastors 



184 RELICS OF THE LAW. 

in council, is to be made our infallible guide, 
we shall need better interpreters of their 
meaning than either of the controvertists or 
their fellows in the so called science of Theology, 
have yet been able to furnish. I could cite 
authority enough, even from these, to shake 
the whole system so perseveringly sustained by 
that wisdom which grasps more at -the form 
than the substance of religion. But such a 
course would open an illimitable field of con- 
troversy, instead of narrowing its boundaries. 
"We all profess that our doctrine shall be tried 
by the Holy Scriptures. I aver, and I think 
have proved, not only that the sprinkling of 
infants has no foundation at all, but that the 
practice of baptizing adults in water is not 
warranted, either by Christ or his apostles. 
Leaving, therefore, this head, which might be 
greatly enlarged, I proceed to consider other 
kindred errors of the same parentage. 

After what has been demonstrated as the 
baptism of Christ, the subject of Confirmation, 
the second means of sanctity, may be dispatched 
in a few words. The laying on of hands by a 



RELICS OF THE LAW. 185 

bishop, to perfect the Christian who has been 
sprinkled in infancy, must be ranked as a 
purely unauthorized invention of men. The 
Roman Catholic doctrine, according to Dr. 
Milner, is that the Holy Spirit is " communicated 
in this sacrament," and "those who are true 
Christians, by virtue of baptism, are not made 
perfect Christians except by virtue of the sacra- 
ment of confirmation." * 

I have shown that the baptism of Christ is of 
the Holy Ghost, the power from on high, 
which the apostles were to wait for, and which 
should accompany their teaching. Because the 
gift of the Holy Ghost did, in some instances, 
follow the laying on of hands, this formality 
has descended with the outward succession of 
bishops, according to the hypothesis of the 
Roman Catholic, and its offspring, the Pro- 
testant Episcopal Church. "With the former 
it would seem, from the above quotation, to be 
absolutely necessary to salvation, as a sequel to 
the sprinkling in infancy. With the latter, I 

* End of Religious Controversy, Letter XX., p. 121. 
16* 



186 RELICS OF THE LAW. 

infer it to be a mere imitative rite, taken from 
the mother church. In either case it is but a 
form, which, like others under that outward 
dispensation of the Law, was, at times, used by 
the instruments of the Most High, when miracles 
were wrought through his power. That these 
forms were not immediately relinquished by the 
apostles, constitutes no precedent for their con- 
tinuance — especially as the modern is but a 
copy of the ancient ceremony without any effect 
at all. But, as whatever virtue may be claimed 
for it, depends, by the confession of both parties, 
on the regular episcopal ordination, as con- 
tinuing by this form a vicarious substitute for 
Christ on earth, which I have before shown to 
be a very figment of priestcraft, this means of 
sanctity may be dismissed without further 
comment.* 

* The Church of England, according to Bishop Hopkins, 
rejects Confirmation as a saerament, because sacraments 
must be ordained by Christ himself, and they must be 
outward and visible signs of an inward and spiritual grace 
given to us. End of Controversy controverted, Letter XIX., 
Vol. I. p. 360. 

Does not washing the feet, ordained by Christ himself 
and expressly commanded, answer the requisition ? See 
post, p. 206. 



RELICS OF THE LAW. 187 



CHAPTER XII. 

RELICS OF THE LAW — (CONCLUDED). 

OF THE LORD'S SUPPER. 

The consideration of this subject becomes 
very important, not on account of the scripture 
warrant for what is called the Eucharist, but 
because of the doctrines which have been laid 
down concerning it. I have before alluded to 
the universal practices of idolatrous nations, in 
offering living victims to their deities as propi- 
tiatory sacrifices, to appease their wrath or draw 
down their favors. The sanction given this 
tendency of the human mind, both from nature 
and education, by directing it to the illustration 
of spiritual truths under the Law, has, no 
doubt, tended to perpetuate the belief in out- 
ward sacrifices, as acceptable offerings to the 
Most High. 



188 RELICS OF THE LAW. 

What testimony can be produced from the 
highest outward authority, has been above set 
forth to show the part which the crucifixion of 
Christ had in the appointed means of man's re- 
demption. The doctrine, however, of the con- 
trovertists, under examination, is of a very 
different character. The parent Church of 
Rome puts it on the footing of such a sacrifice. 
That man's redemption from the fall is wholly 
and solely due to the preconcerted immolation 
of the "second person of the Trinity, ,, as a 
victim sacrificed to the "first" — on the alleged 
ground that it requires an infinite person to 
atone for an infinite sin, and to satisfy infinite 
justice. That this sacrifice was made on Mount 
Calvary — and thereby the door of heaven 
opened to all the holy men who had preceded 
him, who until then had been kept in a part of 
hell called limbo.* That the same actual 
sacrifice- of the body and blood, soul and divinity 
of Jesus Christ, true God and true man, is con- 
tinually made in the Mass, by the instantaneous 

* Bishop Hay's Abridgment, p. 26. 



RELICS OF THE LAW. 189 

change of a wafer into his body and blood. 
That, to make this sacrifice, altars and a priest- 
hood are necessary. That the priesthood was 
instituted by our Saviour in his commission of 
the keys to Peter and his successors in office 
as fully set forth above — and that in eating this 
wafer, the communicant fulfils the condition 
laid down by Christ, " Except ye eat the flesh 
of the son of man, and drink his blood, ye have 
no life in you."* 

Were it not that the whole of this monstrous 
theory is based on the gross idea of an outward 
sacrifice being required to propitiate the Most 
High, we should be at a loss to understand, how 
it was ever possible for even the darkest mind 
to extract such an hypothesis from the scriptures 
of Truth. But, as man has ever been the same 
in all ages, since his serpentine reason usurped 
the seat of God, we may legitimately infer that 
the grovelling superstition, which, likening his 
gods to himself, led him and does lead him, to 
flatter them with incense, and appease or bribe 

* End of Religious Controversy. 



190 RELICS OF THE LAW. 

them with outward offerings and victims, has 
caused him thus to heathenize the gospel of 
Christ. It might be interesting to trace the 
progress of error, in its perversion of the 
simple, but highly figurative teachings of our 
blessed Lord, gathering strength as it rolled 
onward, until its grossness reached the climax, 
and compelled men to arraign it. But, as my 
object is to expose it in as concise a manner as 
is consistent with duty, I must refer the curious 
to other sources. 

We are by nature such enemies to Truth, 
that the first who uphold it, even in its smallest 
discoveries, are almost always its martyrs. The 
seeds, however, are sown in tears and blood, to 
fructify in due time, and produce fruit after 
their kind. Were it susceptible of being 
directly implanted in the stony heart of unre- 
generate man, the goodness of God would have 
accomplished his object, and made a short work 
in the earth. He would not have led him 
through the mazy path of outward similitudes, 
borrowed from his perverse idolatry, up to the 
pure and simple source in his own soul. Nor 



RELICS OF THE LAW. 191 

would he, through his obedient Son, have con- 
veyed it in parables, " because they, seeing, see 
not; and hearing, they hear not, neither do 
they understand. "* 

But, constituted as man is in his natural 
birth, he cannot know, nor receive, the things of 
the spirit of God.f They are to him either a 
stumbling block, by which he falls still deeper 
into error, or foolishness, to be contemned and 
rejected. The preaching of Christ is now, as it 
was formerly, a hidden mystery to the wise in 
this world's knowledge, to be received only by 
that state comparable to a little child, by which 
Jesus illustrated the capacity to hear it. Hence 
it is, that the pompous theories, the elaborate 
rituals, the gorgeous display of outward cere- 
monials, are far more effective in impressing his 
mind, than the simple doctrine of regeneration 
and entire conversion of heart. Christ, in his 
inward and spiritual appearance, a present 
teacher and Saviour from sin, is as much re- 
jected and crucified, as he was formerly, when 

* Matt. xiii. 13. t 1 Cor. ii. 14. 



192 RELICS OF THE LAW. 

manifested to the outward understanding of 
men, by the fulfilment of prophecy, and. the 
abundant proofs of his mission. 

The grossness of the theory, and the evident 
perversion of the principles originally promul- 
gated by Jesus Christ and his apostles, as I 
have said, caused men to call its details in 
question. "When, in the plenitude of power, 
the Pope and his coadjutors sold out the merits 
of holy men, which as the keeper of Christ's 
storehouse on earth, he had accumulated in the 
pontifical treasury, it became too much, even 
for the credulity of those educated to believe 
him the infallible representative of the Majesty 
on high. A rebellion against his authority, and a 
reformation in doctrine and practice were the 
results. But it was only a reformation — the 
corrupt tree was left, shorn, it is true, of its 
most pestiferous branches. Political changes, 
through long and bloody wars, deprived it of 
the power to poison the moral atmosphere as 
widely and absolutely as before. Yet, never- 
theless, the sap which gave vigor to the parent, 



RELICS OF THE LAW. 193 

still flowed through the scions detached and 
transplanted from the same unholy root. 

After the political supremacy of the Pope, the 
Romish doctrine of transubstantiation was one 
of the principal subjects of attack, in the estab- 
lishment of the so called Church of England. 
The expositor of that church, our American 
controvertist, takes, I apprehend, the most 
liberal ground in reference to the tenet, which, 
in the various grades of opinion thereon, is 
known to his communion. I infer this from 
the fierce disputes and litigation that have re- 
cently developed within the bosom of the es- 
tablished Church of England, the existence of 
almost every shade of belief on the subject, 
from his symbolical interpretation of the 
Eucharist, "up to the very gates of Rome it- 
self — the dogma of the real presence in the 
bread and w T ine. 

It will not be necessary, therefore, to enter 
upon the question of the sacrifice of our 
Saviour, under the form of a little flour and 
water made into a wafer, and constituting after 
the priest's consecration, the offering of the 
17 



194 KELICS OF THE LAW. 

second person of the Trinity to the first, in 
order to appease his wrath, and satisfy his 
justice. This branch may now be left to 
Protestant writers of almost every description. 
A protest has been entered, for some centuries, 
against the idolatry and absurdity of what is 
termed the sacrifice of the mass. The form, 
however, is still retained among professing 
Christians, with various degrees of ascribed 
virtue, from the tenet of the Tractarian section 
of the Anglican Church, a distinction with 
scarce a difference from the doctrine of the 
Roman Catholic, down to the Unitarian com- 
municant, w^ho partakes of the elements as 
simple memorials. But, as I am a firm believer 
that, to attain eternal life, it is absolutely neces- 
sary to eat the flesh, and drink the blood of 
Christ, I shall be obliged, as an important part 
of my undertaking, to show how this must be 
effected. Before doing so, I will consider that 
relic of the Law called the Lord's Supper, in 
the outward participation w T hereof the High 
Churchman, the Roman Catholic, and some 



RELICS OF THE LAW. 195 

others, assert that they fulfil the condition by 
which the life alluded to may be received. 

The twenty-sixth chapter of Matthew gives 
his account of what Christ did on eating the 
Jewish passover with his disciples. "And as 
they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed 
it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and 
said, Take, eat : this is my body. And he took 
the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, 
saying, Drink ye all of it : For this is my blood 
of the new testament, which is shed for many 
for the remission of sins. ,, Mark's statement is 
nearly the same. In Luke, the proceeding is 
given as follows : " And he said unto them, 
with desire I have desired to eat this passover 
with you before I suffer. For I say unto 3 r ou, I 
will not any more eat thereof, until it be fulfilled 
in the kingdom of God. And he took the cup, 
and gave thanks, and said, Take this and 
divide it among yourselves: For I say unto 
you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine, 
until the kingdom of God shall come. And he 
took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and 
gave unto them, saying, This is my body, which 



196 RELICS OF THE LAW. 

is given for you ; this do in remembrance of me. 
Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This 
cup is the new testament in my blood, which is 
shed for you."* 

It is remarkable that John, who was the only 
witness, besides Matthew, to whose statement 
we have access, who was one of the principal 
actors in the scene described, who wrote long 
after the others, and whose report of the 
sayings and doings of Christ at that most 
eventful period, is by far the most minute of 
any, should have omitted all allusion to this 
great fundamental institution of the outward 
church. Did the matter rest here, there would 
be no difficulty in fully comprehending the 
mystic import of our Saviour's words, when, for 
the last time, fulfilling with his disciples, the 
duty of an Israelite under the legal dispensa- 
tion. The assurance contained in each account, 
that he would not drink of the fruit of the vine, 
until that day when he should drink it new with 

* Luke xxii. 15-20. 



RELICS OF THE LAW. 197 

them in his Father's kingdom, sufficiently ex- 
plains their spiritual meaning. 

With many, and indeed most of the ob- 
servances in which they had been educated, the 
apostles and early converts still retained the 
Jewish passover. It was, nevertheless, changed 
in character, and became a custom among the 
brethren through weakness rather than sanction. 
But their practice in this, as likewise that of 
assembling on the first day of the week, formed 
the warrant for superstitious doctrines concern- 
ing both. It was convenient for ecclesiastical 
dignitaries, in after times, to claim, from their 
example, the holiness of the Jewish for the so 
called Christian sabbath, and through this claim 
to bind burdens on their fellow-men. So, also, 
on the primitive custom of distributing bread 
and wine when assembled, in memorial of that 
last supper, they based the doctrine of an out- 
ward sacrifice for sin, in imitation of the Mosaic 
institutions. 

It is true that we have less apostolic testimony 
on this head, than that of water baptism. And 
what is accessible, takes the form rather of 
17* 



198 RELICS OF THE LAW. 

negative than positive evidence. The first 
epistle of Paul to the Corinthians furnishes 
what I shall endeavor to prove such, although, 
to the superficial examiner, it may appear 
otherwise. Among the many directions and 
rebukes concerning their omissions and com- 
missions, as reported to him, he endeavors to 
reform their superstitious notions in regard to 
eating and drinking. They were, like the Phari- 
sees, too much, disposed to cleanse the outside 
of the cup and platter, to the neglect of the in- 
ward part. Hence, he tells them not to be 
querulous when bidden to a feast, but to eat 
what is set before them, asking no question for 
conscience' sake. Nevertheless, when told that 
"This is offered in sacrifice unto idols," for the 
sake of a weak brother, not to eat. "Whether 
therefore," says he, "ye eat or drink, or what- 
soever ye do, do all to the glory of God. Give 
none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the 
Gentiles, nor to the church of God : even as I 
please all men in all things, not seeking mine 
own profit, but the profit of many, that they 



RELICS OF THE LAW. 199 

may be saved." * He then, after some directions 
about very trivial matters, reproves them for 
gluttony and drunkenness under the pretence 
of coming together to eat the Lord's supper, 
and proceeds thus : " For I have received of the 
Lord that which also I delivered unto you, 
That the Lord Jesus, the same night in which 
he was betrayed, took bread : And when he 
had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, 
eat ; this is my body, which is broken for you : 
this do in remembrance of me. After the 
same manner also he took the cup, when he had 
supped, saying, This cup is the new testament 
in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, 
in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat 
this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the 
Lord's death till he come. Wherefore, whoso- 
ever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of 
the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the 
body and blood of the Lord. But let a man 
examine himself, and so let him eat of that 
bread, and drink of that cup. For he that 

* 1 Cor. x. 31-3. 



200 RELICS OF THE LAW. 

eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and 
drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning 
the Lord's body.''* 

Is it not evident that the apostle, instead of 
sanctioning the custom, is but reproving its 
abuse, and conveying spiritual instruction 
through its medium? He that eateth and 
drinketh unworthily, discerns not the Lord's 
body, of which this outward supper was but a 
type. As he had told them before, " The cup 
of blessing which we bless, is it not the com- 
munion of the blood of Christ? the bread 
which we break, is it not the communion pf 
the body of Christ ?"f But types and outward 
shadows were ended with the law. They only 
pointed to the substance, which is alone effica- 
cious for the soul's redemption. So far, how- 
ever, from seeking that substance, and leaving 
the shadow to pass away, man, in his serpentine 
wisdom, inaugurated as the Christian church, a 
fabric of superstition, compounded of the worst 
features of Judaism and Pagan idolatry. I 

* 1 Cor. xi. 23-29. f Ibid. x. 16. 



RELICS OF THE LAW. 201 

challenge, even amid the fetish worshippers of 
benighted Africa, the developement of an idea 
more repugnant to the scriptural conception of 
God, than that embraced in this doctrine of the 
wafer sacrifice. 

I shall now endeavor to explain what is the 
body and blood of Christ : that " bread which 
came down from heaven:" of which "he that 
eateth shall live forever." * 

In conveying to the reader's mind the position 
of man as he was created, I have represented 
him a three-fold being. This I consider the 
best method of illustrating what is demon- 
strably true, even by the facts of physiological 
science. His moral nature is a third organiza- 
tion, still more undeveloped as he enters ex- 
istence, than that of his intellect. It is as per- 
fectly contrasted with the latter and separated 
from it, as from his physical formation, and as 
they are from each other. But, after all, the 
reality, described by the sacred writers, is suffi- 
ciently obvious under any view of the subject. 
The command was given to that in his moral 



* John vi. 51-58. 



202 RELICS OF THE LAW. 

constitution which could perfectly comprehend 
and obey it. His duty was as plain to him in 
the unclouded radiance of the sun of righteous- 
ness, the Word in the beginning, the fulness of 
Divine effulgence, as is the outward pathway 
to his eye, marked and trimmed, and hedged in 
for safety, under the brightness of a summer's 
day. "What is it that separates the human from 
the brute creation, more clearly than this moral 
accountable nature or conscience ? Not his in- 
tellectual, unbounded as that would appear, in 
comparison with the scanty reasoning powers 
of all below him in the scale of existence. For 
great as is this, its province and its limits are 
within the material world. It cannot soar 
beyond — It is wholly unable by searching to 
find out God. The loftiest and most cultivated 
intellect has no nearer access to the throne of 
grace, to the knowledge which constitutes 
eternal life,* than the meanest understanding. 
For " the things of God knoweth no man, but 
the Spirit of God."f 



* John xvii. 3. f 1 Cor. ii. 11. 



RELICS OF THE LAW. 203 

In the outward man with whom we have in- 
tercourse through the medium of our senses, the 
blood is the representative of life. The most 
ordinary means of destroying the latter, is to 
take away the former. Hence, in the popular 
acceptation, the world over, these are convertible 
terms. Moses so considered it, as appears by 
the express declaration in Leviticus — " For the 
life of the flesh is in the blood; and I have 
given it to you upon the altar, to make an 
atonement for your souls; for it is the blood 
that maketh an atonement for the soul."* It 
was symbolical, therefore, of the life, that 
" almost all things are, by the law, purged with 
blood: and without shedding of blood is no 
remission. " For says the apostle, " if the blood 
of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an 
heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the 
purifying of the flesh ; How much more shall 
the blood of Christ, who through the eternal 
Spirit offered himself without spot to Gocl, 
purge your conscience from dead works to serve 
the living God ?"f 

* Lev. xvii. 11-14. f Heb. ix. 13, 14, 22. 



204 RELICS OF THE LAW. 

In the dispensation of the law, I have en- 
deavored to show that the whole series, from 
the beginning to the end, was typical. Nor 
does the man who was its crown and close, 
form an exception. The error then is manifest, 
in supposing that the outward blood is that 
blood of Christ, which purges the conscience 
from dead works to serve the living God. 
While the apostle is proving to the Hebrews, 
from their own authorities, that the one great 
offering ended all others forever, he applies it in 
the same sense that our Saviour did, when, at 
the last supper, he told his disciples to drink of 
the cup — "For this," said he, "is my blood of 
the new testament, which is shed for many, for 
the remission of sins."* And again, "Except 
ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink 
his blood, ye have no life in you — "Whoso eateth 
my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal 
life." -f When in giving them, therefore, the 
outward bread, he said, " Take, eat: this is my 
body," he was enforcing the same great spiritual 

* Matt. xxvi. 28. t John yi. 53-4. 



RELICS OF THE LAW. 205 

truth — that it is the living bread which cometh 
down from heaven — the flesh and blood of 
Christ, the eternal Word — of which if a man 
eat, he shall live forever. It must be his 
nourishment — become his life and Light, to 
lead and guide him into all truth. He must 
receive this as his Saviour, and be born again, 
" not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor 
of the will of man, but of God." * The Jews, 
like many, perhaps most, since their day, could 
not hear it — and he then told them plainly, "It 
is the spirit that quickeneth: the flesh profiteth 
nothing : the words that I speak unto you, they 
are spirit, and they are life." f 

It seems a mere work of supererogation, to 
pursue this subject farther. The whole gospel 
of John is almost a direct commentary, to 
explain and enforce the doctrine. Even the im- 
portant rite minutely detailed where we should 
assuredly have found an account of the Lord's 
Supper, had it been intended as an ordinance, 
that of washing his disciples' feet, both illus- 

* John i. 13. t Ibid. vi. 63. 

18 



206 RELICS OF THE LAW. 

trates and confirms the same spiritual truth. 
"If I wash thee not," said he to Peter, "thou 
hast no part with me." If Peter had no part 
with his Saviour without outward washing, he 
must have erred greatly in saying, that it is not 
the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but 
the answer of a good conscience toward God 
that saves us.* But Christ's obviously spiritual 
meaning was consistent in this, with his doctrine 
of the regeneration. He inculcated also a lesson 
of humility, and told them expressly that he 
had given them an example, "that ye should 
do as I have done unto you."f Why is not 
this far more authoritative and better authenti- 
cated command, (for between the personal 
witnesses, John and Matthew, the beloved disciple 
undoubtedly takes precedence) binding as an 
ordinance on the church ? Dr. Milner cites it to 
prove that his unwritten law of tradition must 
explain the written law of scripture. But in 
what manner will Bishop Hopkins, whose highest 

* 1 Pet. iii. 21. f John xiii. 15. 



RELICS OF THE LAW. 207 

and only law is, professedly, the written scrip- 
ture, reconcile so glaring a discrepancy ? 

The body and blood of Christ, the living 
bread which cometh down from heaven, the 
well of water, in us, springing up into everlast- 
ing life,* are then but names to signify the 
substance — the Holy Spirit he promised to send 
his disciples — himself, the Word which was in 
the beginning, the life and the light of men — 
ever present with his church to the end of the 
world. When man makes the offering of his 
natural life — that reasoning, serpentine, casuistic 
will that always chooses darkness rather than 
light, because it seeks to justify evil deeds — and 
submits passively to God's government in the 
soul, then he experiences the antitj T pe of all 
outward types, and becomes, truly, a member 
of that church — militant and in suffering on 
earth — but triumphant and blessed forever in 
heaven. It is then that the real immortal man 
receives again his life lost by the fall, and, par- 
taking of this spiritual flesh and blood of Christ 

* John iv. 14. 



208 RELICS OF THE LAW. 

day by day, dwells in peace with God, having 
been redeemed by it from the state of death and 
bondage to sin. There ever has been, is, and 
ever must be, but one will in heaven — that of 
God — whom now, by adoption, he can truly 
call Father, and to do whose will is his spiritual 
meat and drink. 

The four remaining means of sanctity, called 
sacraments by Roman Catholic writers, are 
easily disposed of. Penance, which is trans- 
lated repentance in Protestant versions, neces- 
sarily precedes conversion and amendment of 
life. Extreme Unction is a mere form, with so 
little scriptural foundation, as to render its 
examination superfluous, after what has already 
been said. That of Holy Orders stands upon 
the assumption that Christ instituted an out- 
ward priesthood, which I have sufficiently 
shown to be groundless. And Matrimony, a 
contract of a religious character, to be prayer- 
fully entered into, derives no sanction from any 
act of man. God alone can join souls in this 
sacred engagement, and whom He hath joined, 
let no man put asunder. 



OF FAITH. 209 



CHAPTEE Xm. 



OF FAITH. 



"By grace are ye saved," saitli the apostle, 
" through faith ; and that not of yourselves : it 
is the gift of God." * And again : u The grace 
of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to 
all men, teaching us, that, denying ungodliness 
and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, right- 
eously, and godly, in this present world : Look- 
ing for that blessed hope, and the glorious ap- 
pearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus 
Christ ; who gave himself for us, that he might 
redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto 
himself , a peculiar people, zealous of good 

works." f 

In this latter quotation the fact is asserted, 
that all men have access to that grace which 



* Eph. ii. 8. t Titus ii. 11-14. 

18* 



210 OF FAITH. 

bringeth salvation ; and its effects are perspicu- 
ously set forth. In the former that we are 
saved by it, through faith. It becomes then a 
very important matter to understand the mean- 
ing of faith. 

I know of no better definition than this same 
apostle furnishes in his Epistle to the Hebrews. 
"Faith," sa} 7 s he, "is the substance of things 
hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."* 
And surely, there could not be a finer series of 
illustrations, than those which follow his defini- 
tion. By it, all the miracles, both in the 
material and moral world, have been wrought. 
"Without it, the power of God has been rendered 
inoperative, even when manifested through his 
only begotten son. He told his disciples they 
might remove mountains, and that nothing 
should be impossible to them, if they had faith 
as a grain of mustard-seed — the smallest of all 
seeds — yet he himself did not many mighty 
works among his own countrymen, because of 
their unbelief. 

* Heb. xi. 1. 



OF FAITH. 211 

" Without faith it is impossible to please him ; 
for he that cometh to God, must believe that he 
is, and that he is a rewarder of them that dili- 
gently seek him." * Here is the first requisite: 
to believe in the existence of God — an omnipo- 
tent, omniscient and omnipresent Being — and 
a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. 
But, it is said, "the devils also believe and 
tremble, f It is, therefore, by works of a con- 
trary nature to theirs, that saving belief in God 
is to be manifested. An outward confession 
may, in consequence, be without faith. The 
Atheist is not, of necessity, he alone who denies 
with the tongue that there is a God. On the 
contrary, the very highest profession may be 
made before men, while the conduct proves it 
but hypocrisy and lies. " The fool hath said in 
his heart, There is no God." J He w T hose deeds 
prove that the affections of his heart are alien 
to God, is the true Atheist — the virtual believer 
that there is no God. 

So, "if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, 

* Heb. xi. 6. f James ii. 19. % Psalms xiv. 1. 



212 OF FAITH. 

lie is none of his."* This, too, must be mani- 
fested by the fruits of that spirit. It is impos- 
sible that the same Holy Spirit can produce 
contrary effects — therefore its operation must 
be, to make the disciple like his Master, other- 
wise he is none of his. But how do we find 
Christendom at the present day? Is it any 
nearer that lofty standard which was plainly 
held up in precept, and exemplified in practice 
by Jesus Christ, more than eighteen centuries 
ago ? Do we behold the evidence in fierce and 
destructive wars abroad — in fraud, covetousness 
and oppression at home? Are these manifest 
contradictions to every precept and every act, 
of both Christ and his apostles, the results of 
their teachings and their example ? Who will 
dare affirm it in the face of that record of 
their sayings and doings, which forms, pro- 
fessedly, the ground-work of all our systems of 
morals and religion ? 

Christ promulgated his doctrine in language 
which is not susceptible of misinterpretation or 

* Eom. viii. 9. 



OF FAITH. 213 

perversion. "Ye have heard," said he, "that" 
it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neigh- 
bor, and hate thine enemy: But I say unto 
you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse 
you, do good to them that hate you, and pray 
for them which despitefully use you and perse- 
cute you."* The whole tenor of his sermon on 
the mount is of the same character. But 
Christendom has, at this moment, the spectacle 
of a vast war, in justification of which the 
name of Christ has been invoked. The cog- 
nate churches, claiming outward descent and 
authority from him, are engaged in prayer for 
the success of their respective armies in the 
dreadful work of butchering each other. It 
may be appropriately to the god of battles, but 
surely not to Him who is one with Christ and 
his church. The supplications of the Roman 
Catholic priesthood of France, and its reformed 
hierarchy of England, are put up against the 
prayers of their official brethren of Russia — 
and, on both sides, in sanction of a contest 

* Matt. v. 43-4. 



214 OF FAITH. 

which realizes, more than any picture ever 
imagined, the horrors of hell on earth. 

The Apostle James declared that u wars and 
fightings," come " of your lusts that war in your 
members. Ye lust, and have not : ye kill, and 
desire to have, and cannot obtain : ye fight and 
war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not."* 
Every war that was ever waged, from the first 
to the present, had its origin in, and depended for 
its continuance upon, the cause here set forth. 
It is true, there have been defensive to resist 
aggressive wars. The degrees of guilt must 
vary, from the blackness of sheer ambition, 
lust, and cruelty, down to the mildest shade of 
transgression incurred in resisting atrocious 
wrong. But who shall judge of these? Are 
they not, in practice, imaginary extremes ? Was 
there ever war without a pretext ? "Was there 
ever a cause defended by it, unstained by all 
the most ferocious passions of our nature, and 
the direst cruelties which man can inflict ? The 
very existence of bodies armed and organized to 



* James iv. 2. 



OF FAITH. 215 

do each other all the mischief they can, whatever 
the justice of either cause may be, is subversive 
of every idea of love, to God or man. The 
ordinary duel has this apology, that the offender 
and the offended meet to settle their own 
quarrel in their own way. But the national 
duel brings into mortal conflict, men who have 
no grudge to spur their revengeful appetites. 
The comrades of this war were the antagonists 
of the last, and the belligerents of to-day, the 
close allies in arms but a short time since. 

This single case of war has been taken to 
exemplify the contrast between what modern 
religion, falsely so called, sanctions and actively 
upholds, and what Christ's express teaching, 
fortified by his practice, even unto martyrdom, 
positively forbids. "With the like result I 
might go over the whole of his sermon on the 
mount, and point out almost as great an antago- 
nism in every particular. So far is Christendom 
from having the Spirit of Christ, that even the 
poor mockery of respect to his doctrine, and an 
honest confession of inability to reach it in 
practice, is wanting. With their blind guides 



216 OF FAITH. 

to lead, the professed Christian churches turn 
back to the law which he expressly abrogated, 
and invert his recital of what was in old time, 
and what he then commanded. 

But the argument is urged, that without re- 
sistance, oppression and tyranny would destroy 
political liberty; — that aggressions must be 
checked by coalition, and to render this effec- 
tive, the science of war must be learned, and its 
machinery employed in the only available 
manner, irrespective of private opinions or 
duties. So thought the Jews formerly, when 
the precepts of Christ were obviously tending 
to convert men, from the blind instruments of 
human policy, to the meek champions of peace 
on earth, and good will toward men. " If we 
let him thus alone, all men will believe on him ; 
and the Romans shall come, and take away both 
our place and nation."* Their reasoning was 
correct, on the ordinary principles of expedi- 
ency. But so far was the result from justifying 
their worldly-wise conclusion, that the very 

* John xi. 48. 



OF FAITH. 217 

means they used to prevent it, were, by an 
overruling Providence, made the causes of their 
destruction. 

May not the same moral be drawn from 
events now transpiring in another hemisphere ? 
"What, in the inscrutable counsels of Omnipo- 
tence, is reserved for the end, no man can tell. 
But all former history has shown this awful 
game a barren storehouse of future good. The 
necessity which justifies it, is the tyrant's plea 
as well as the patriot's. The political wisdom 
that plans, is as uncertain and short-sighted, as 
that which crucified the Prince of Peace, to 
preserve the integrity of a nation he came ex- 
pressly to save. 

I have introduced this subject, in order to 
illustrate the doctrine of Expediency as op- 
posed to Faith. Man, in his fallen, unregenerate 
state, sets up his own wisdom, and reasons upon 
immediate consequences. He will not trust the 
eternal "Wisdom which would demonstrate that 
no end can be safely reached by improper 
means. He will not hear the doctrine that God 
governs the universe he has created, and can, 
19 



218 OF FAITH. 

and does overrule and control the purposes of 
men according to liis own good pleasure. 
"When Pilate vauntin'gly asked, " Knowest thou 
not that I have power to crucify thee, and have 
power to release thee ? Jesus answered, Thou 
couldest have no power at all against me, 
except it were given thee from above:"* This 
is the Christian's faith — faith in God ; as omnis- 
cient — knowing all things, the end as well as 
the beginning : as omnipresent — without whose 
notice not even a sparrow falls to the ground : 
as omnipotent — able to paralyse the assassin's 
arm, or deliver from serried legions of hostile 
foes — and as supremely good — who, to the 
temporal sacrifices of his obedient servant, will 
restore a ' hundred fold and reward with ever- 
lasting life.f 

Christ again declared to Pilate, " My kingdom 
is not of this world ; if my kingdom were of 
this world, then would my servants fight, that I 
should not be delivered to the Jews." J In this 
eternal truth is contained the keys of the king- 

* John xix. 10, 11. f Matt. xix. 29. 

% John xviii. 36. 



OF FAITH 219 

dom of heaven. They who enter it are re- 
deemed from the craft, the policy, and the 
grovelling wisdom of the unregenerate nature. 
They trust implicitly in God, and pursue the 
path of duty as his will is revealed in the in- 
nermost sanctuary of the soul. Though, like 
their Master, they may be hung up between 
earth and heaven, a spectacle for the scoffs and 
derision of men, they know the Power in whom 
they have trusted, and that, however humbled 
before the multitude, it is for the greater glory 
of the resurrection which will follow. As they 
fight not for a corruptible, but an incorruptible 
crown, they look only to their leader for direc- 
tion and for safety. Obedient to all human in- 
stitutions which God has set over them, except 
where to obey w^ould conflict with his law, they 
suffer, but dare not resist violence for the testi- 
mony he has given them to bear. In this 
manner they fulfil all righteousness, even under 
the laws and the governments of the world. 
They are holy, harmless, and undefiled, in the 
warfare of the church — when brought before 
governors and kings for the sake of its Head, 



220 OF FAITH. 

suffering, if necessary, without answering ever 
a word, or speaking in his name what is given 
them in that same hour,* and what all their 
adversaries shall not be? able to gainsay nor 

resist, f 

Faith, then, is a living operative principle — 
a reality, which manifests itself at all times, and 
on all occasions. It produces good works as a 
result — but always under the direction of that 
Wisdom which is from above — which sees the 
end from the beginning — which overleaps the 
evanescent and transitory, to contemplate the 
infinite and eternal. 

In the acceptation of the world, faith is gene- 
rally considered an affair of the head — but it is 
far otherwise. "Whatever theories a man may 
hold, either through the force of education, or 
from a conviction of their correctness, it matters 
very little, provided the heart be right in the 
sight of God. If the natural stony heart of the 
first birth in sin, be changed by repentance to 
that fleshly table whereon God can write his 



* Matt. x. 19. f I^uke xxi. 15. 



OF FAITH. 221 

law, if the spiritual eye be kept single to the 
glimmerings of light, even under the darkest 
theories that priestcraft ever fastened upon the 
mind, the whole body will, sooner or later, be 
filled with light — the day will dawn, and the 
day-star arise, Christ the Sun of the spiritual 
firmament. 

But, as saving faith is the gift of God to him 
whose eye is kept single to the light made 
manifest, it is also dispensed, in infinite Wisdom, 
to meet man's capacity to receive it. The 
Apostle Paul declares the gospel of Christ to 
be the power of God unto salvation, to every 
one that believeth — " For therein is the right- 
eousness of God revealed from faith to faith."* 
As the soul becomes obedient and submissive 
to this power of the gospel "preached to every 
creature which is under heaven,"f the righteous- 
ness of God is revealed from faith to faith. 
" Till," through the means and the dispensa- 
tions appointed, "we all come in the unity of 
the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of 

* Rom. i. 16, 17. t Col. i. 23. 

19* 



222 OF FAITH. 

God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of 
the stature of the fulness of Christ."* In this 
stature, " we henceforth are no more children, 
tossed to and fro, and carried about with every 
wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and 
cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to 
deceive," * but established on that Rock which 
is immutable, the revealed will of God in the 
soul as its guide and governor forever. 

The experience of Christians, however, in 
this conversion, is very different. "While illus- 
trating the state to Nicodemus, Christ declared, 
"The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou 
hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell 
whence it cometh, and whither it goeth ; so is 
every one that is born of the Spirit." f And 
again : " as the lightning that lighteneth out of 
the one part under heaven, shineth unto the 
other part under heaven ; so shall also the Son 
of man be in his day." J On some, and per- 
haps most, it is a gradual and almost an imper- 
ceptible work — while others are stricken down 

* Eph. iv. 13, 14. f John iii, 8. 

t Luke xvii. 24. 



OF FAITH. 228 

in a moment, under the overwhelming sense 
of their lost and undone condition. The 
Apostle Paul, with whose history in this parti- 
cular, my own closely corresponds, was, as is 
well known, of the latter class. On one day he 
lived under the law of men's commandments in 
his unregenerate state, self-persuaded that he 
was blameless — on the next, he felt himself the 
chief of sinners — for he had received his 
Saviour, the revealer of that depth of wretched- 
ness in which he lay. To follow him singly in 
the regeneration, was thenceforth the great 
object of existence. Had he gone to Jerusalem 
to them which were apostles before him, in 
order to learn what he must do, I have no doubt 
at all that his great mission would have been 
frustrated. But he had faith — living faith that 
the Power which had raised him from the spiri- 
tually dead, required no aid or assistance from 
human counsel. 

It is owing to an opposite course of conduct, 
that man is so rarely found advancing beyond 
the Law into the gospel state. God speaks to 
him by irresistible convictions, which, for the 



224 OF FAITH. 

time, he must hear — But he turns from the 
great teacher within him, to some one of the 
" outward successors/' too often little better 
than the Pharisees of old, and, in order to save 
his natural life or will, loses that eternal life 
which is proffered him. Wrapt in the impene- 
trable covering of a formal profession, he 
fulfils the decent round of prescribed cere- 
monies, and lives and dies in the fatal delusions 
he has hugged so fondly to his bosom. The 
spiritual eye becomes blinded, and in the carnal 
ease of a respectable worldly professor of re- 
ligion, he allows all his influence among men 
to pass, under the guidance of the counsellor 
he pays, in the support of error. Careless of 
consequences, and fearing men too much to in- 
vestigate truth for its own sake, he is willingly 
harnessed in the Church of Anti-christ — for 
there are but two—" He that is not with me, is 
against me," saith Christ, "and he that gath- 
ereth not with me, scattereth abroad."* 

"Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, 

* Matt. xii. 30. 



OF FAITH. 225 

now is the day of salvation."* The moment 
which is passing in our lives is the turning 
point throughout all time and eternity. On 
this moment hangs the future, forever. Now, 
is the accepted time — it is all that we possess. 
No man can tell whether the next moment may 
be his, to work while it is yet day. Be his state 
of advancement in the school of Christ little or 
great, assuredly, he has work enough to engage 
all the energies at his command. This great 
work of salvation is entirely between God and 
his own soul. It concerns him alone, as if no 
other human being were on the face of the 
earth. As the measure of grace is personal to 
himself — as the dispensations meted out in 
infinite Wisdom, are adapted precisely to his 
own several state and condition, he can have no 
excuse for comparing his advancement with 
that of his neighbor. In fact, this is impossible, 
for to do so requires the knowledge of another's 
heart. Nor can he stand justified in the sight 
of his final Judge, because, through the per- 

* 2 Cor. vi. 2. 



226 OF FAITH. 

verse inclinations of his natural will, lie has 
committed himself to the direction of others. 
If, in sincerity of heart he do so ignorantly, 
then, although he must suffer loss while in 
bondage to the beggarly elements of human 
invention and craft, yet if that honest sincerity 
stimulates him to seek after truth, there will be 
a growth in spiritual stature, even under this 
law of man. But wo to him, if, deceived by 
the delusion he has embraced, his integrity is 
destroyed when conviction reaches the soul. 
The state of that young man who turned away 
sorrowfully from Christ, because he would not 
make the required sacrifice, will be his. To 
resign his false theories, to face the opposition, 
and even the scorn of his associates, to feel his 
own natural will, hitherto but slightly crossed, 
now crucified and buried by the baptism of 
Christ, must prove a severe ordeal. But the 
account is with eternity forever. Moral prin- 
ciples are as immutable as the throne of God. 
If sincerity of purpose, and purity of heart be 
lost — if a compromise be made with error — if 
that lowest platform of sheer justice to the 



OF FAITH. 227 

cause of truth and righteousness be evaded — he 
cannot pass the threshold of Christ's church. 
And the more he hugs his delusions — the more 
conspicuously his merits raise him to the bad 
eminence of a blind guide and teacher to others, 
the deeper will be his guilt, and the darker his 
retribution as an upholder of the synagogue of 
Satan — of the Church of Anti-christ. 



228 CONCLUSION. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

CONCLUSION. 

Having now given, in as brief and concise a 
manner as the importance of the subject would 
permit, my reasons for not subscribing to the 
doctrines put forth in the controversial works to 
which this is offered as a supplement, the 
object proposed, is, I apprehend, sufficiently 
accomplished. I have no wish to do more than 
furnish the honest inquirer after Truth, with a 
plain scriptural exposition of that certain rule 
or method by which the religion of Jesus 
Christ may infallibly be known. In carrying 
out this design, he will, at least, perceive that I 
can have no private or selfish end in view. I 
desire to gain no proselyte to a particular sect 
of professing Christians, nor have I any wish to 
uphold any especial ideas or opinions as worthy 
of acceptation. Engaged, I trust, with fearless- 



CONCLUSION. 229 

ness of man, and singleness of heart toward 
God, to perform what my puny efforts can com- 
pass, in directing my fellow probationers to that 
Source of light and life, from which alone has 
been learned my little knowledge, I feel no 
motive but that of gospel love for their souls. 
The first and foremost wish of my heart is, to 
speak only what I know — the next, in so doing, 
to vindicate the ways of God to man. If there 
appears to be a presumptuous grappling with 
subjects of the greatest magnitude, let it be re- 
membered that I follow only in the train of 
fallible and presumptuous men. I have the 
same interest at stake, and I must judge for 
myself. All the countless array of authorities 
could not sanctify error, and make it effective in 
the salvation of my soul. It is impossible, 
therefore, to avoid this investigation of the pro- 
found causes, which have led to the present 
condition and wants of our race. Every one 
whose spiritual perceptions are sufficiently 
quickened to feel truly his hold on immortality, 
and the utter insufficiency of all mundane pur- 
suits to satisfy that immortal nature, must, of 
20 



230 CONCLUSION. 

necessity, enter this great field of inquiry. As 
he does it with singleness of heart, the light 
which makes manifest, will reveal to him the 
things of the Spirit of God. He will soon per- 
ceive that, in the school of Christ, all mnst be 
learned anew — that he has hitherto known 
nothing of the Divine Being or his attributes. 
But, as he progresses in that knowledge which 
cannot be shaken or superseded, his experience 
will enable him to compare spiritual things 
with spiritual. In the records of w T hat holy 
men, who have gone through the same process, 
said and did, he will receive a confirmation, 
while, at the same time, his own testimony 
must be added to theirs, on proofs as positive, 
and even more so than the outward senses can 
furnish of outward things, that truth is one and 
the same forever. In this manner, he will be 
enabled to set his seal to the testimony of the 
righteous of all generations. 

It is not through such witnesses that discredit 
is brought upon religious teaching. They illus- 
trate doctrine by example, and cannot but 
receive that respect which a consistency between 



CONCLUSION. 231 

precept and practice must ever command from 
even prejudiced hearers. And, in the warfare 
of the church militant with the inventions 
fastened by ambition and craft upon her holy 
profession, the armory, furnished by her enemies, 
will become polished and effective weapons in 
his hands. As his divine Master, in turning the 
artillery of the letter-wise scribes and Pharisees 
upon themselves, vindicated the ways of God, 
so will he, in convicting gainsayers from their 
own acknowledged authorities, place these upon 
their just footing, and strengthen the force of 
their testimony. 

I have omitted all topics which lay not 
directly in my path, and have limited the ex- 
amination, even of these, to what was necessary 
for a bare exposition of their character. Enough, 
I trust, has been furnished, to prove the con- 
sistency of the Holy Scriptures with themselves, 
and to exhibit from them, their idea of the 
Majesty on High. If not, the fault is assuredly 
my own — "Let God be true, but every man a 
liar." All human efforts to convey any con- 
ception of the great I AM must, forever, utterly 



232 CONCLUSION. 

fail. The most I aim at is to break those 
images which the corrupt and grovelling wisdom 
of the worldly mind has raised, for incense to 
itself while ministering at unhallowed and 
worthless shrines ! 

The two great commandments, on which 
hang all the law and the prophets, involve the 
sum of human duties — indeed, the first contains 
the all in all. To love God, who is declared to 
be love,* is to manifest that love by obedience. 
And the surest manifestation is perfect love to 
men; who, in the pure creation which came 
from his hand, and in the depth of degradation 
which has perverted it, still stand, as objects of 
his equal care, our neighbors and our brethren. 
God's love is manifested by the subordination 
of every temporal and transient interest to 
man's eternal* welfare. The love which is 
begotten in the soul by obedience to His holy 
law, is of the same nature, co-extensive with 
the whole human family, and supremely solici- 
tous for its everlasting salvation. Our present 

* 1 John iv. 8. 



CONCLUSION. 233 

life is "a vapor, that appeareth for a little 
time, and then vanisheth away." It is but pre- 
paratory to one without limit in duration, and 
to which it can bear no comparison. Every 
motive and every act, should therefore have re- 
ference to that state which is to follow. Hence 
the insignificance of worldly affairs, to such as 
confess that they are strangers and pilgrims on 
the earth, and declare plainly that they desire 
and seek a better, that is, an heavenly country. 
To reach the holy Jerusalem, of which the 
Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the 
temple, and the light,* or, in other words, to 
regain that Paradise where His will reigns and 
rules supreme forever, is the end and object of 
all their labors and sufferings. 

* Kev. xxi. 22, 23. 

20* 

THE END. 



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SBhSs 







